The 

'ractice  of  Charity 


Individual,  Associated 
and  Organized 


BY 

DWARD  THOMAS  DEVINE,  PH.D.  (PENNA.) 

. 

GENERAL    SECRETARY    OF    THE    CHARITY 

ORGANIZATION   SOCIETY  OF  THE 

CITY     OF     NEW     YORK 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 
1904 


*•- 


COPYRIGHT,  1904 
BY  DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 

COPYRIGHT,  igoi 
Bv  LENTILHON  &  COMPANY 

Reissued  June,  1904 


BURR    PRINTING    HOUSE 
NEW    YORK 


To  my  fellow  workers  in  the  paid  corps  of  the 
Charity  Organisation  Society  of  the  City  of  New 
York — who,  in  the  discharge  of  their  daily  duties t 
add  to  sympathy  knowledge;  to  zeal  common  sense; 
and  to  humility  courage. 


1.66481. 


Contents 


PAGE 

I.  Introduction:  Charity  Defined  i 

II.  In  Defense  of  Charity  .        .    '    .        .        .        .        5 

III.  Those  Who  Need  Help 15 

—IV.  Substitutes  for  Charity 32 

V.  Organized  Charity 43 

VI.  Volunteer  Service 66 

VII.  The  Church  and  Charity 84 

VIII.  Professional  Service 104 

IX.  Some  Elementary  Principles       .        .        .        .121 
X.  Some   Elementary   Definitions    .        .        .        .140 
XI.  The  Test  of  a  Good  Society  .     161 

Some  Illustrative  Problems  .     168 

Appendix : 

Constitution      for     a     Charity     Organization 
Society  192 


Preface 

For  the  present  edition  of  the  Practice  of  Charity, 
the  text  has  been  revised  throughout ;  and  there  have 
been  added  two  entirely  new  chapters,  those  entitled 
"Some  Elementary  Definitions"  and  the  "Test  of  a 
Good  Society."  The  draft  of  a  constitution  for  a 
charity  organization  society  is  also  entirely  new,  dif- 
fering in  many  radical  particulars  from  the  draft 
which  appeared  in  the  earlier  edition.  Attention  is 
especially  invited  to  the  statement  of  Purposes  and 
Objects,  in  which  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  sub- 
stitute a  more  positive  form  of  statement  than  that 
which  is  in  general  use  in  societies  of  this  kind,  and 
one  which  more  completely  represents  their  real 
spirit.  .E  T  D 

NEW  YORK  CITY,  June,  1904. 


Brief  Bibliography 

REPORTS  OF  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  SO- 
CIETIES. 

[A  list  of  such  societies  is  published  in  the  annual  re- 
ports of  the  New  York  Charity  Organization  Society.] 
REPORTS  OF  RELIEF  SOCIETIES  AND  CHARITA- 
BLE INSTITUTIONS. 
CHARITIES  DIRECTORIES. 

[That  for  New  York  is  published  by  the  Charity  Or- 
ganization Society;  for  Boston  by  the  Associated 
Charities  of  that  city ;  for  Philadelphia  by  the  Civic 
Club;  for  London  by  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  for  the 
London  Charity  Organization  Society.] 
CHARITIES:  A  weekly  periodical  of  local  and  general 

philanthropy.     New  York. 

[The  Charities  Review,  formerly  published  independ- 
ently, now  appears  as  a  monthly  number  of  Charities; 
see  also,  the  Charities  Record,  Baltimore;  Co-opera- 
tion, Chicago;  the  ten  volumes  of  The  Charities  Re- 
view, 1891-1901  (New  York)  ;  and  the  Charity  Or- 
ganization Review  (London),  published  by  the  Lon- 
don society.] 
DEVINE,  EDWARD  T.  Principles  of  Relief.  Macmillan 

Co.     New  York. 

PROCEEDINGS     OF    THE     NATIONAL    CONFER- 
ENCE   OF    CHARITIES    AND    CORRECTION. 
[The  volume  for  1893  contains  index  to  the  volumes 
from  1874  to  1893.] 

PROCEEDINGS  OF  STATE  CONFERENCES  of 
Charities  and  Correction,  Conventions  of  Superin- 
tendents of  the  Poor,  and  Reports  of  State  Boards 
of  Charities. 

ix 


X  BRIEF  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

WARNER,  A.  G.    American  Charities.    T.  Y.  Crowell  & 

Co.     New  York. 
RICHMOND,  MARY  E.     Friendly  Visiting  Among  the 

Poor.    Macmillan  Co.    New  York. 

SPECIAL  ARTICLES  in  such  periodicals  as  The  Annals 
of  the  American  Academy  of   Political  and   Social 
Science,    Philadelphia ;     The  Journal   of   Sociology, 
Chicago;  The  Forum,  and  The  Atlantic  Monthly. 
[The   first   named   publication    has    a  department    of 
Notes  on    Philanthropy,    Charities    and    Social    Prob- 
lems.] 
CASE  RECORDS  of  Charity  Organization  Societies  and 

similar  agencies. 

[When  proper  records  are  kept,  these  are  the  best  of 
all  sources  of  information  for  the  student  who  has 
access  to  them  and  knows  how  to  use  them.] 
[Any  of  the  above  or  other  books,  pamphlets  or  peri- 
odicals may  be  obtained  through  Charities,  105  East 
Twenty-second  Street,  New  York.] 


The  Practice  of  Charity 


I.  INTRODUCTION 

'  THE  practice  of  charity  concerns  the  citizen  in 
his  individual  relations  with  his  poorer  neighbors. 
It  concerns  the  church  and  the  multitudinous  forms 
of  religious  activity  within  or  supplementary  to 
the  church.  Sunday  schools,  young  peoples'  societies 
and  guilds,  relief  agencies  and  societies  whose  pri- 
mary objects  are  fraternal,  have  all  their  charitable 
tasks, — which,  whether  they  be  serious  or  com- 
paratively slight,  should  be  discharged  intelligently 
and  conscientiously.  The  interdenominational  or 
secular  relief  societies,  the  associated  charities  of 
the  larger  cities,  "and  the  small  groups  of  persons, 
not  always  organized  into  formal  societies,  upon 
whom  the  burden  of  relieving  distress  falls  in  the 
smaller  towns  and  in  the  country,  are  compelled  to 
face  practical  questions  upon  which  the  light  of 
wider  experience  would  often  be  welcome. 

Still  more  keenly  should  a  similar  need  be  felt  by 
overseers,  commissioners  of  charities,  and  other  pub- 
lic officials  who,  sometimes  without  previous  ex- 
perience, are  called  upon  for  a  longer  or  shorter 

i 


2  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

time  to  disburse  public  moneys  in  the  relief  of  desti- 
tution. XA  valid  distinction  is  sometimes  made  be- 
tween private  charity  and  public  relief,  but  official 
relief  from  the  public  treasury  cannot  be  disbursed 
rightly  in  any  community  save  by  one  who  knows 
the  probable  extent  and  the  limitations  of  private 
charity,  and  the  concrete  questions  of  administration 
are  to  a  large  extent  common  to  the  two  fields.  This 
little  book  then  is  intended  for  public  officials  re- 
sponsible for  the  relief  of  the  poor ;  for  active  church 
workers  who  touch  upon  any  aspect  of  poverty  and 
its  remedy;  for  charity  workers  whether  they  are 
professionally  employed  by  some  organized  agency 
or  are  volunteers  enlisted  in  the  struggle  against 
pauperism  and  distress;  for  individual  citizens  who 
feel  any  responsibility  for  their  unfortunate  neigh- 
bors; and  for  students  who  desire  in  compact  form 
a  statement  of  some  of  the  elementary  conclusions 
of  modern  organized  charity. 

There  is  no  dearth  of  material  upon  which  to  base 
such  conclusions.  For  example  the  registrar  of  a 
charity  organization  society  may  be  responsible  for 
the  safe  custody  of  several  thousand  family  records, 
many  of  them  covering  periods  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  and  in  some  instances  reaching  backwards 
through  two  or  three  generations.  To  the  society 
may  come  every  year  thousands  of  persons  with 
either  new  or  renewed  applications  for  assistance. 
Under  the  care  of  the  district  committees  of  such  a 
society  at  any  one  time,  in  the  winter  months,  there 
may  be  some  hundreds  of  families  visited  by  the 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  3 

agents  of  the  society,  whose  duty  it  is  to  obtain  relief 
when  it  is  needed,  but  who  also  devote  their  energies 
to  the  permanent  elevation  of  the  character  and  cir- 
cumstances of  the  families  committed  to  them. 

The  applications  come  in  a  variety  of  ways.  Many 
make  direct  personal  application  by  letter  or  by  a  call 
at  one  of  the  offices  of  the  society.  Others  are 
recommended  by  friends  who  may  themselves  have 
received  aid.  Some  have  asked  for  alms  on  the 
street  and  have  been  referred  to  the  society.  Others 
are  discovered  to  be  in  need  by  physicians,  nurses, 
clergymen  or  neighbors.  Every  conceivable  variety 
of  affliction  has  befallen  them.  Every  degree  of 
courage,  endurance  and  ingenuity  has  been  ex- 
hibited. The  true  pauper  type  is  there  and  so  like- 
wise is  the  poor  man  whose  poverty  is  in  no  sense 
discreditable,  and  whose  present  need  gives  an 
eagerly  embmced  opportunity  to  the  charitable. 
These  confidential  records  show  also  the  most  di- 
verse results  of  the  attempts  to  help.  Some  of  them 
are  complete  failures;  some  are  partial  successes. 
Upon  the  happy  results  in  still  other  cases  there 
seems  to  rest  no  stain  or  trace  of  disappointment. 
Various  too  are  the  agencies  used  in  relief  and  re- 
generation. Religious,  social  and  educational  forces 
are  employed.  The  church,  the  relief  society  and 
the  individual  are  all  called  into  service.  Public 
relief  supplements  private  charity.  Whether  on  the 
whole  headway  is  made  by  these  allied  forces  against 
the  disorganizing  results  of  human  weakness  and 
vice,  may  be  disputed;  but  here  at  least  are  the 


4  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

available  data  for  such  generalizations  as  it  is  now 
safe  to  make. 

The  writer  may  claim  acquaintance  with  a  very 
considerable  amount  of  such  material,  and  this  ac- 
quaintance with  families  is  not  solely  theoretical  or 
documentary.  Many  of  them  he  has  known  per- 
sonally. Conferences  are  held  with  applicants  both 
at  the  office  of  the  society  and  in  their  own  homes. 
The  necessity  for  aiding  agents  and  visitors  to  reach 
practical  conclusions  on  the  more  serious  questions 
arising  in  their  treatment  of  families,  such  as  the 
initiation  of  proceedings  on  grounds  of  insanity, 
the  commitment  of  children  to  institutions  because 
of  the  destitution  of  parents,  or  the  provision  of  a 
pension  for  aged  persons,  have  given  a  familiarity 
with  details  which  will  often  correct  or  modify  con- 
clusions based  upon  written  records  and  statistics 
of  a  general  nature.  Frequent  visits  to  other  cities 
and  conferences  with  those  who  are  engaged  in 
similar  work  in  New  York  and  elsewhere  will  per- 
haps prevent  the  views  expressed  from  reflecting 
merely  local  or  exceptional  conditions. 

The  practice  of  charity  is  prompted  by  one  of 
the  most  universal  impulses  of  the  human  heart. 
It  is  enjoined  by  religion  and  by  all  ethical  systems. 
If  these  pages  promote  this  virtue  by  laying  bare 
some  of  the  principles  upon  which  its  practice  may 
be  most  effectively  based,  the  author's  aim  will  have 
been  happily  attained. 


II.  IN  DEFENSE  OF  CHARITY 

Two  distinct  symptoms  of  the  disfavor  into 
which  the  term  charity  has  fallen  may  be  observed. 
One  is  the  cry  of  the  radical  reformers  who  con- 
stantly reiterate  that  they  want  "  not  charity,  but 
justice."  The  other  is  the  claim  advanced  by  the 
managers  of  certain  modern  schemes  for  social  bet- 
terment, that  they  are  conducting  "  not  a  charity,  but 
a  business." 

There  is  a  ready  rejoinder  to  both  of  these 
phrases.  It  is  easy  to  point  out  that  many  of  those 
who  are  most  vociferous  in  their  insistence  upon 
"  not  charity  but  justice  "  are  in  fact  doing  noth- 
ing at  all  to  promote  either.  It  is  equally  obvious 
that  a  charitable  enterprise  does  not  change  its  es- 
sential character  by  calling  itself  a  business  enter- 
prise. There  is  a  necessity,  however,  for  more 
careful  analysis  of  the  public  sentiment  which  lies 
behind  the  desire  to  escape  from  the  associations 
suggested  by  the  word  charity.  Is  it  wide-spread 
and  increasing?  What  is  its  origin?  Is  it  well 
founded?  If  not  should  it  be  directly  combatted,  or 
should  those  who  are  engaged  in  what  has  hereto- 
fore been  known  as  charitable  work,  so  far  yield 
to  the  prejudice  as  to  change  the  name  under  which 
their  work  is  carried  on? 


6  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  existence  of  a  cer- 
tain  hostile   feeling  towards   the   idea   of  charity. 
This  feeling  is  exhibited  not  only  by  the  embittered 
unfortunates,  who  feel  that  individually  they  have 
not  had  a  fair  chance  under  existing  social  condi- 
tions, and  by  revolutionists  who  have  become  con- 
vinced on  more  general  grounds  that  the  present 
social  order  is  to  be  condemned,  but  also  by  many 
of  the  more  conservative  classes  who  accept  tfye  con- 
ditions of  industrial  competition  and  are  struggling 
to  improve  their  economic  position.     It  may  be  that 
great  changes  have  already  been  made  in  their  fa- 
vor, but  of  course  these  are  not  accepted  by  them 
as  final.     They  are  promptly  utilized  as  stepping- 
stones  to  still  further  advances.     Strenuous  in  their 
struggle   for  as   large   a   share  as   possible   in   the  j 
product  of  industry,  these  classes  often  adopt  the  *" 
impatient   language   of   the   radical   and   the   sub-?'' 
merged,  although  for  them  it  really  has  a  different .; 
meaning.    The  "  justice  "  which  they  demand  is  not' 
to  be  gained  by  revolution,  or  by  playing  upon  the 
feelings  of  the  benevolent,  but  by  the  steady  pres- 
sure of  their  own  economic  advantages.     They  may 
suffer  temporarily  in  times  of  labor  disputes  or  in-  J 
dustrial  crises,  but  as  a  rule  they  stand  upon  a^ 
perfectly  sure  footing.     Such  is  the  general  attitude . 
of  the  average  workingman.    His  prejudice  against 
charity  is  not  serious,  or  deep  seated.     He  himself, 
has  no  need  for  it,  but  he  realizes  vaguely  that  others 
have  and  he  would  be  the  last  to  do  anything  se-, 
riously  to  discourage  it.     He  may  applaud  public 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  7 

orators  who  declaim  against  it,  and  if  a  real  leader 
of  ability,  honesty  and  courage  arises  to  picture  an 
ideal  .community,  he  may,  for  the  time  being,  follow 
that  leader's  standard  with  enthusiasm,  but  he  is  apt 
to  demand  before  long  practical  results  in  the  im- 
provement of  his  own  position,  and  to  realize  that 
the  framing  of  Utopian  schemes  will  not  of  itself 
be  of  much  value  to  him. 

He  will  continue  to  relieve  distress  when  it  con- 
fronts him.     He  will  remain  appreciative  of  the  liber- 
ality displayed  by  others,  and  he  will  recognize  the 
necessity  of  relief  agencies.   The  idea  of  charity  in  his 
nind  is  bounded  on  the  one  hand  by  obvious  and 
iig  destitution,  and  on  the  other  by  the  giving 
money  or  its  equivalent  for  the  relief  of  such 
istress.     He  may  attribute  the  destitution  in  part 
id  social  conditions,  although  he  is  far  more  apt 
seek  its  explanation  in  the  faults  and  the  weak- 
es  of  the  individual.     The  prosperous  working 
"•on  the  whole  is  not,  therefore,  hostile  either 
•'  idea  or  to  the  manifestation  of  charity  except 
icident  of  his  own  struggle  to  improve  his 
or  when,  under  the  stress  of  emotional  in- 
.   the  exceptional  victim   of  social   injustice 
as  the  normal  representative  of  the  existing 
ec  :  and  social  order. 

'erent  with  those  who  wish  to  see  a  com- 
-evolution,  and  to  whom  charity  appears 
>f  .checking  the  natural  resentment  and 
indignation  which  the  excluded  classes  should  feel 
at  the  injustice  of  the  present  distribution  of  wealth. 


8  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

To  them  charity  appears  as  a  palliative,  modify- 
ing in  some  degree  the  hardships  of  the  process  and 
so  reconciling  the  elements  which  would  otherwise 
be  in  revolt,  and  postponing  the  day  of  final  reckon- 
ing. It  is  charged  that  what  is  disbursed  in  charity 
is  but  arc  infinitesimal  part  of  the  sums  obtained 
by  the  successful  exploiters  of  human  labor.  Char- 
ity is  represented  as  the  amusement  of  the  wealthy, 
or  as  a  sop  thrown  by  the  favored  to  those  whom 
they  have  defrauded. 

Such  assertions  may  have  an  element  of  truth  in 
them.  When  funds  are  secured  for  any  charitable 
purpose  by  general  subscription  it  is  always  possible 
that  some  contributions  may  be  received  from  per- 
sons whose  motives  are  questionable.  A  direct  in- 
vestigation of  the  reasons  for  responding  to  char- 
itable appeals  is,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  imprac- 
ticable. Some  may  give  because  they  wish  to  rrrke 
partial  restitution  for  ill-gotten  wealth.  Others  '*  ly 
feel  that  the  charitable  institutions  which  they  p- 
port  are  a  bulwark  against  revolution,  and  tha  ?  ir 
own  position  is  made  more  secure  by  the  ex  cc 
of  such  institutions.  \Still  others  may  giv(  re- 
lessly,  merely  because  their  means  are  large,  ,1  it 
is  easier  to  respond  .favorably  than  to  taxc  the 
trouble  and  the  possibly  disagreeable  consequences 
of  declining.  When  due  allowance  has  been  Vnade 
for  all  these  motives,  the  candid  student  of  the  con- 
tributions made  in  such  enormous  sums  each  year 
for  charity  must  recognize  that  not  even  a  beginning 
has  been  made  in  the  explanation  of  such  gifts. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  9 

Money  is  given  in  charity  chiefly  from  a  sincere 
desire  to  help  those  who  are  in  trouble.  This  is 
equally  true  of  the  money  given  directly  to  individ- 
uals whose  distress  is  seen  personally  by  the  donor, 
and  of  the  larger  sums  given  indirectly  to  care 
for  the  sick  and  the  afflicted,  to  aid  the  widow  and 
the  fatherless,  and  to  care  for  and  train  those  who 
must  soon  be  dependent  upon  their  own  efforts. 
While  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  motives  directly, 
there  are  numerous  indications  of  the  nature  of  the 
interest  felt  by  contributors,  which  are  entirely  in- 
consistent with  any  such  interpretation  as  the 
enemies  of  charity  allege.  Men  and  women  of  large 
means  not  infrequently  devote  nearly  the  whole  of 
their  leisure  time  to  the  personal  direction  of  the 
charitable  enterprises  to  which  they  have  given 
financial  support,  bringing  to  such  service  oftentimes 
high  business  capacity,  sound  judgment,  and  in- 
valuable experience.  The  contributions  made  to 
charitable  societies  are  in  a  very  large  number  of 
instances  not  from  superfluous  means  at  all,  but  are 
serious  deductions  from  income  which  might  other- 
wise be  devoted  to  personal  comforts  or  conve- 
niences. The  greatest  care  is  often  displayed  in  se- 
lecting from  the  lists  of  charitable  enterprises  that 
demand  financial  support.  If  the  work  of  a  particu- 
lar society  to  which  such  contributor  has  given 
shows  diminishing  efficiency,  the  contribution  is 
quickly  withdrawn  and  placed  elsewhere.  Annual 
reports  and  other  indications  of  the  society's  activity 
are  scrutinized,  visits  are  made  to  the  institutions 


10  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

in  order  that  the  contributor  may  ascertain  by  per- 
sonal inquiry  what  amount  and  what  kind  of  serv- 
ice is  performed. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  pressure  of  modern  life  many 
contributors  do  not  take  the  personal  trouble  to 
make  such  inquiries,  and  that  in  some  quarters  there 
is  too  great  a  readiness  to  put  the  whole  respon- 
sibility upon  officials  or  committees;  but  in  every 
community  there  are  enough  who  take  the  opposite 
course  and  who  give  expression  to  the'  motives 
which  are  undoubtedly  shared  by  many  of  their 
fellow  contributors,  to  indicate  that  there  is  little 
foundation  for  the  charge  that  charitable  donations 
are  unaccompanied  by  genuine  charitable  motive, 
^fcharity  is  far  more  than  a  palliative.  It  is  the 
means  by  which  a  countless  number  of  individuals 
are  rescued  from  ignorance,  destitution  and  crime. 
It  is  the  means  by  which  an  insupportable  burden 
is  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  the  weak  and  in- 
capable. It  is  the  means  by  which  education  and  in- 
dustrial training  are  put  within  the  reach  of  many 
who  would  otherwise  miss  them.  It  literally  clothes 
\  the  naked,  feeds  the  hungry  and  cures  the  sick.  All 
this  it  may  do  wisely  and  without  injury.  The 
charitable  impulse,  however,  does  not  make  the 
human  being  whom  it  inoculates  immune  against 
human  stupidity.  Desirous  of  being  charitable  one 
may  therefore  do  for  others  that  which  they  should 
do  for  themselves,  just  as  the  teacher  may  un- 
wisely perform  tasks  which  should  be  performed  by 
the  pupil.  That  which  is  given  away  in  ignorance 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  1 1 

or  in  disregard  of  the  past  history  and  present 
character  of  the  beneficiary,  may  be  in  effect 
a  reward  for  wrong-doing,  and  may  operate  to 
discourage  the  development  of  character.  All  this 
is  true  likewise  of  that  which  is  done  in  the  name 
of  education  or  of  religion.  The  gist  of  the  matter 
is  that  there  is  no  magic  in  charity  to  obviate  or 
modify  in  any  way  the  normal  results  of  human 
action.  Bearing  this  in  mind  those  who  feel  sympa- 
thy for  persons  who  are  in  distresj  will  not  feel  any 
hesitation  in  yielding  to  their* charitable  impulses. 
They  will  consider,  however,  with  the  greatest  care 
what  course  of  action  should  be  pursued  to  relieve 
the  distress  and  if  possible  to  prevent  its  recurrence. 

Giving  may  appear  less  frequently  the  proper 
course,  and  personal  service  of  some  kind  may  be 
more  frequently  of  advantage.  After  experience 
has  shown  where  the  dangers  lie  and  where  lie  the 
causes  of  the  distress  which  is  encountered,  there 
will  be  no  longer  hesitation  upon  theoretical  grounds, 
and  there  will  arise  implicit  confidence  in  the  utility 
of  considerate  and  wisely  directed  charity. 

In  a  larger  social  sense  chanty  also  finds  justifica- 
tion, provided  it  is  made  an  educational  agency, 
as  it  always  can  be.  and  not  a  demoralizing  in- 
fluence. When  a  family  which  has  been  dependent 
upon  others  becomes  self-supporting  the  entire  com- 
munity is  benefited.  The  family  now  contributes 
to  the  social  product  instead  of  being  a  drain  upon 
it.  When  an  individual  who  has  been  a  social  debtor 
is  transformed  into  an  active  self-dependent  member 


I  2  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

of  society  it  is  of  advantage  not  only  to  himself  but 
to  his  fellows.  In  a  very  limited  view  he  might 
appear  to  be  taking  work  from  others  and  so  de- 
priving them  of  employment,  but  the  work  which  he 
takes  is  wholly  unremunerated  work  and  he  now 
gives  an  equivalent  to  the  community  for  that  which 
he  obtained  before  as  truly  without  compensation  as 
if  it  had  been  taken  by  theft.  Social  progress  would 
be  enormously  advanced  by  the  transformation  of  all 
of  the  improvident  and  inefficient  members  of  society 
into  persons  who  provide  for  their  own  future  and 
share  in  a  product  which  they  have  helped  to  create. 
Without  charity,  competition  and  natural  selec- 
tion might  eliminate  the  unfit,  but  it  would  be  with 
enormous  waste  of  human  life  and  energy  which 
through  intelligent  charity  may  be  saved  and  util- 
ized. Charity  reasonably  bestowed  does  not  per- 
petuate the  unfit  but  transforms  the  unfit  into  that 
which  may  profitably  survive.  The  absence  of 
charity,  which  is  brutality,  perpetuates  not  only  the 
unfit  but  the  environment  in  which  the  unfit  flour- 
ishes. When  charity  is  absent  the  family  of  the  de- 
generate is  not  smaller,  but  merely  has  a  chance  to 
develop  its  vicious  qualities  and  to  perpetuate  the 
misery  and  the  vice  which  it  naturally  creates. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  the  abolition  of  charity 
would  lessen  the  birth  rate  or  increase  the  death 
rate  of  the  dependent  and  the  criminal,  but  it  is 
certain  that  if  charity  were  to  disappear  the  de- 
generate and  the  criminal  would  have  less  chance 
for  reformation  and  improvement. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  13 

Here  and  there,  without  charity,  helpless  children 
would  perish,  but  many  more,  for  whom  charitable 
assistance  means  the  difference  between  a  good 
chance  in  life  and  a  chance  under  the  worst  of  con- 
ditions, would,  without  -such  assistance,  live  to 
create  a  new  generation  of  degenerates  instead  of 
contributing  to  the  increase  of  the  number  of  use- 
ful citizens.  It  is  quite  true  that  charity  leaves 
many  tasks  of  this  kind  unfulfilled;  that  the  un- 
favorable environment  of  the  tenement  house  is 
still  allowed  to  put  its  blight  upon  many  who,  under 
enlightened  public  policy,  might  be  rescued  from  it; 
that  physical  infirmities  curable  in  childhood  are 
not  detected ;  that  the  discipline,  care  and  training 
given  to  dependent  children  are  not  always  such  as 
would  fit  them  best  for  active  life;  that  charity  is 
sometimes  mechanical  and  ineffective  for  its  avowed 
purpose. 

Charity  in  its  noblest  conception  makes  large  de- 
mands upon  its  adherents  and  they  may  fail  re- 
peatedly to  meet  them.  Through  such  failures, 
however,  if  they  remain  faithful  adherents,  they  will 
rise  to  great  achievements  which  will  be  thrice 
blessed  —  to  the  individuals  who  receive,  to  those 
who  give,  and  to  the  community  of  which  they 
both  form  parts. 

Charity  has  some  enemies,  many  admirers,  but 
comparatively  few  constant  friends.  The  enemies 
of  charity  cannot  make  good  their  attack.  They  may 
misrepresent  and  malign  it,  but  the  only  real  danger 
in  which  charity  stands  is  not  from  its  avowed  ene- 


14  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

mies  but  from  others  who  may  formally  acknowl- 
edge its  claims,  but  who  from  absorption  in  selfish 
ends  refuse  to  charity  its  natural  and  proper  place 
in  their  lives.  There  will  be  no  need  of  a  defence 
of  charity  if  those  who  feel  its  importance  will  even 
at  personal  inconvenience  engage  in  its  practice. 


III.  THOSE  WHO  NEED  HELP 

IN  the  broadest  sense  every  one  needs  and  re- 
ceives help  from  his  fellows.  Mutual  interchange 
of  services  lies  at  the  basis  of  our  economic  life  and 
has  a  large  place  in  other  human  relations  as  well. 
Protection  in  infancy,  training  in  childhood,  oppor- 
tunity in  youth,  and,  for  multitudes,  direction  and 
encouragement,  even  through  maturity,  are  necessi- 
ties of  existence. 

There  are  few  who  have  not  even  more  than  this 
general  acknowledgment  to  make.  Once  or  oftener 
to  nearly  all  of  us  have  come  experiences  in  which 
our  welfare  seemed .  to  require  some  definite  con- 
tribution from  the  outside.  A  helping  hand  has 
been  given  to  us  by  some  one  who  was  under  no 
obligation  to  extend  it.  The  opportunity  of  a  life- 
time has  been  placed  before  us;  and  we  have  not 
known  how  to  make  use  of  it.  The  mistake  of  a 
lifetime  threatens  us;  but  an  unexpected  succor 
from  some  one  who  might  have  held  aloof  enables 
us  to  avert  its  expected  consequences.  Our  individ- 
ual or  family  affairs  have  become  entangled  be- 
yond our  power  to  unravel  them ;  but  a  friend  has 
shown  us  the  right  way  and  at  some  expense,  it  may 
be  of  time  and  money,  has  put  us  into  that  way. 

15 


1 6  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

A  readjustment  for  which  we  may  not  even  have 
recognized  the  necessity  is  brought  about  by  the  as- 
sistance of  one  who  has  acted  with  our  good  in  view. 
If  we  are  ever  able  to  reciprocate  such  action  it  will 
be  in  all  probability  through  kindness  to  others  who 
need  assistance,  not  by  payment  in  kind  to  our  own 
benefactors. 

Charity  is  nothing  else  than  this  same  kind  of 
assistance  given  by  one  human  being  to  another. 
We  are  all  in  varying  degrees  beneficiaries.  We 
may  all  be  benefactors.  Displayed  in  a  small  scale 
in  the  ordinary  relations  of  life,  we  think  of  such 
helpful  actions  as  have  been  described  as  courtesies. 
They  are  an  indication  of  good  breeding,  of  native 
kindliness,  rather  than  evidence  of  a  conscious  de- 
sire to  help  others,  but  their  root  is  sympathy,  and 
courtesy  is  only  charity  which  has  become  habitual 
and  unconscious.  As  all  our  instincts  are  only 
habitual  judgments  formulated  many  times  in 
succession  by  ourselves  or  our  ancestors,  so  good 
manners  are  the  crystallized  results  of  our  repeated 
attempts  to  be  serviceable  to  others. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  answer  then  to  the 
inquiry  which  is  suggested  by  the  subject  of  this 
chapter  is  that  our  help  is  needed  by  all  human 
beings  with  whom  we  come  into  intimate  contact. 
The  majority,  however,  will  require  of  us  only  the 
ordinary  social  amenities.  To  be  on  the  lookout 
not  to  cause  them  annoyance  or  unnecessary  trouble, 
to  give  full  measure  of  goods  or  service  when  they 
buy  of  us,  to  carry  on  our  social  intercourse  with 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  IJ 

good  temper  and  cheerfulness,  to  contribute  what- 
ever we  have  of  wisdom,  philosophy,  and  poetry  in 
our  conversation,  and  to  do  our  work  skilfully, 
earnestly,  ungrudgingly — with  these  obligations 
honorably  discharged  we  shall  have  done  well. 

And  yet  we  may  be  all  these  things  and  not  be 
generally  regarded  as  charitable.  It  is  true  that  our 
lives  will  necessarily  have  been  permeated  by  the 
spirit  of  charity,  but  the  expressions  of  that 
spirit  thus  far  outlined,  because  they  have  become 
so  generally  instinctive,  are  not  recognized  in  their 
true  character.  We  do  these  things,  at  least  when 
we  do  them  best,  merely  because  they  are  the  things 
which  we  do  naturally — as  a  matter  of  course — not 
at  all  with  a  conscious  purpose  of  making  life 
pleasanter  for  others. 

There  remain,  however,  other  services  which  are 
not  so  much  a  matter  of  course.  We  have  to  think 
about  them  with  considerable  care,  simply  for  the 
reason  that  human  beings  have  not  for  generations 
done  the  right  thing  in  regard  to  them  as  a  matter 
of  course.  It  is  indeed  difficult  to  decide  what  the 
right  thing  is.  We  are  still  forming  our  original 
judgments  about  them.  They  are,  however,  within 
the  range  of  things  done  for  the  sake  of  helping 
others.  Because  these  services  are  more  consciously 
performed;  because  we  have  the  needs  of  the  ones 
for  whom  they  are  performed  more  clearly  before 
us;  because  we  recognize  that  there  is  a  duty  de- 
volving upon  us,  we  differentiate  these  services  from 
the  others  of  the  same  kind,  and  think  of  them  as 


18  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

charitable.  They  seem  to  us  more  serious,  possibly 
more  virtuous,  certainly  more  vital  to  the  individ- 
uals on  whose  behalf  they  are  undertaken. 
/  Who  then  are  the  proper  objects  of  charity?  Who 
need  help  of  the  kind  distinctly  called  charitable? 
Again  the  answer  might  be  that  except  for  the  good 
fortune  which  disguises  for  some  of  us  the  form  in 
which  help  comes  to  us,  it  would  be  obvious  that 
all  are  or  have  been  at  some  time  objects  of  charity. 
We  seek  now,  however,  to  distinguish  those  whom 
fortune  has  not  thus  favored,  and  whose  needs  the 
community  must  discover  and  meet,  by  methods 
consciously  adapted  to  the  purpose — who  need  help 
by  what  are  recognized  to  be  charitable  means. 

The  destitute  sick  furnish  us  the  largest  number 
of  the  legitimate  objects  of  charity,  and  the  problem 
of  aiding  them,  while  by  no  means  simple,  is  less 
baffling  and  perplexing  than  those  arising  in  con- 
nection with  many  other  classes  of  dependents.  Ill- 
ness may  be  the  result  of  contagion  for  which  the 
community  at  large  and  not  the  individual  who  is 
stricken  down  is  responsible.  Inability  to  meet 
the  financial  burden  of  medical  care  and  incidental 
expenses  of  illness  and  to  provide  a  substitute  for 
the  income  which  is  reduced  or  cut  off  by  illness, 
may  not  be  at  all  surprising  if  all  the  facts  of  in- 
dividual cases  are  taken  into  account.  Disease  or 
accident  may  afflict  the  young  man  before  there  has 
been  any  opportunity  for  saving.  The  breadwinner 
of  a  large  family  whose  margin  of  saving  is  narrow 
may  see  it  disappear  entirely  when  illness — possibly 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  19 

long  continued  and  expensive — visits  some  member 
of  his  family,  and  even  the  income  with  which  or- 
dinary living  expenses  are  to  be  met  may  be  cut  off, 
if  it  is  the  breadwinner  himself  who  succumbs. 

Still  more  obvious  is  the  necessity  for  caring  for 
aged  persons  who  are  afflicted  by  chronic  illness  and 
who  for  any  reason  are  homeless  and  friendless  ex- 
cept for  the  ministrations  of  strangers.  Crippled 
children  may  be  in  need  of  surgical  treatment,  which 
would  be  too  expensive  for  their  parents  to  give, 
even  if  they  are  in  position  to  provide  for  the  or- 
dinary necessities  of  life.  A  consumptive  may  be  a 
menace  in  his  own  family  and  may  require  a  dif- 
ferent climate  for  restoration  to  health.  Both  for 
the  chance  of  recovery  for  the  patient  and  for  the 
sake  of  preventing  the  infection  of  others  it  may 
be  wise  to  enable  the  consumptive  to  be  removed 
from  his  family  through  charitable  assistance,  even 
though  there  is  ample  income  for  usual  living  ex- 
penses. A  widow  may  be  incapacitated  physically 
from  earning  a  living  for  herself  or  her  children,  but 
perfectly  capable  of  making  a  home  for  them  and 
giving  them  all  necessary  maternal  care.  Such 
women  may  often  be  aided  to  the  full  extent  of  their 
household  expenses  without  injury  or  danger.  The 
mentally  deficient  whether  insane,  feeble-minded,  or 
only  extremely  eccentric  may  need  restraint  or  sup- 
port. 

Such  are  some  of  the  most  frequent  recurring 
types  of  cases  in  which  charitable  help  is  to  be  given 
because  of  need  caused  or  aggravated  by  illness.  It 


20  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

is  not  necessary  that  assistance  be  given  by  strangers 
in  all  such  instances.  Whenever  possible  a  tem- 
porary loan  from  some  personal  friend,  a  weekly 
benefit  paid  by  some  society,  or  club  to  which  the 
beneficiary  has  belonged  and  into  whose  treasury  he 
has  paid  regular  dues,  or  if  downright  assistance 
is  needed,  then  assistance  from  near  relatives  or 
neighbors  who  are  intimately  acquainted  with  all  the 
circumstances  may  obviate  the  need  for  any  more 
formal  arrangement.  The  writer  remembers  to  have 
driven  past  a  western  farm  house  in  which  the  head 
of  the  family,  who  had  recently  purchased  the  farm 
of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  was  lying  in  bed 
with  a  broken  leg.  A  force  of  six  or  eight  men 
were  hard  at  work  putting  the  finishing  touches  on 
a  wire  fence,  built  to  protect  a  growing  crop  of 
grain.  It  turned  out  that  just  before  the  accident 
he  had  dug  the  post  holes  for  the  fence  and  had 
brought  the  wire  to  the  place  where  it  was  to  be 
used.  Realizing  that  the  safety  of  the  crop  would 
not  permit  the  fence  to  await  the  farmer's  recovery, 
the  neighbors  had  turned  out  in  a  body  to  set  the 
posts  and  string  the  wire.  They  did  this  without 
consulting  the  owner  or  stopping  to  inquire  whether 
he  could  not  have  hired  men  to  do  it.  Inquiry  as 
to  how  general  such  indications  of  neighborly  serv- 
ice still  were  in  that  county  in  the  year  of  grace 
1900,  brought  out  the  fact  that  the  illness  of  an  old 
resident,  whose  farm  was  directly  across  the  road 
from  that  of  the  man  with  the  broken  leg,  had  led  in 
the  preceding  year  to  the  husking  of  an  entire  field 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  21 

of  corn,  the  only  return  for  which  was  that  the 
farmer's  wife  was  expected  to  provide  a  generous 
dinner  for  the  huskers,  and  the  man  himself  to  fur- 
nish one  of  the  eight  or  ten  teams  necessary  to  haul 
in  the  corn. 

Neither  of  these  acts  can  be  called  charitable. 
Neither  of  the  families  approached  destitution  by 
a  long  way.  The  spirit  which  prompted  the  farmers 
however  is  one  which  should  be  kept  alive  in  every 
community  however  great  its  wealth  or  its  poverty.1 

After  leaving  out  of  account  all  of  the  cases  in 
which,  through  provident  foresight,  or  through 
neighborly  assistance,  the  need  for  charity  has  been 
eliminated,  there  will  still  remain  some  in  which 
because  of  illness  the  community  must  aid.  Some 
patients  may  best  be  cared  for  in  suitable  hospitals, 
some  may  be  visited  in  their  homes  by  physicians 
and  nurses,  some  boarded  in  the  country,  in  the 
mountains  or  at  the  seashore,  as  their  particular 


wi 
br 

= 


!The  following  report  of  a  conversation  between  a  man 
and  wife  in  a  tenement  house  while  a  fire  was  in  progress 
affords  an  interesting  contrast.  The  story  is  told  by  the 
wife  to  a  newspaper  reporter.  The  man  was  born  and 
brought  up  in  a  New  York  tenement  house  and  has  the 
reputation  among  his  fellow  tenants  of  being  "  a  decent 

.ough   sort  of  man."     Ten  persons  were  burned  to  death 

their  beds  in  this  fire. 

"  I  seen  the  fire  and  woke  my  husband  up,"  she  said. 
"  He  says:  '  Wot's  the  matter  with  you?  It  ain't  goin'  to 
burn  over  here  is  it.'  '  No,'  I  says,  '  but  think  of  the  poor 
people  asleep  in  there.'  '  Ah,  go  wan,'  he  says.  '  As  long 
as  you're  safe,  you  mind  your  own  business  and  let  them 
mind  theirs.'  '  Tim,'  I  says  to  him,  '  them  people  ain't 


22  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

disease  may  require.     If  the  family  is  so  situated 
that   the   entire   financial   burden   must    fall    upon 
charity,  or  if  the  disease  is  such  that  quiet  and  a 
method  of  treatment  not  practicable  at  home  aqs 
prescribed,  removal  to  a  hospital  is  necessary.    This- 
may  often  be  decided  only  upon  the  advice  of  a 
competent  physician,  which  advice  should  be  influ- 
enced by  many  other  than  the  merely  professional 
aspects  of  the  case.    Among  the  ^hospitals  of  a  great 
city  there  is  a  certain  degree  of  differentiation  which 
should  be  understood  by  those  who  are  frequently4 
called  upon  to  apply  to  them  on  behalf  of  the  sick.^ 
There  are  reception  hospitals  for  emergency  cases; 
maternity  hospitals;  hospitals   for  the  diseases  of 
women  and  children ;  isolation  hospitals  for  con- 
tagious diseases;  hospitals  for  ruptured  and  crip-, 
pled ;  homes  for  chronic  and  incurable  patients,  and 
convalescent  homes.     There  are  also  less  obvious 


awake.  They'll  be  burnt  to  death.  You  go  over  and  walfe 
them  up.'  '  Ah,  let  'em  find  it  out  themselves,'  says  hei^. 
'  Then  if  you  won't  go,  I  will/  I  says,  and  I  started  to  get 
up,  and  the  baby  began  to  cry.  '  You  lie  down,'  he  says.  ( 
'  D'you  think  I'm  goin'  to  stay  here  an'  mind  the  kids  while 
you're  meddlin'  in  what  don't  concern  you?  Lie  down,'  he 
says,  an'  with  that  he  give  me  a  crack  on  the  jor,  an'  I  was 
afraid  to  get  up  again.  And,  oh  my  God.  I  heard  'em  cry- 
ing out  after  that  and  seen  that  man  jump  from  the  top 
window  and  kill  himself,  and  they  might  have  been  saved 
if  he'd  let  me  go  and  call  'em,  for  the  fire  was  only^  just 
startin'  when  I  seep  it.  After  it  was  over  an'  I  told  him, 
he  says,  '  Well,  them  people  ain't  nothin'  to  you  or  me,  are 
they?'  and  he  started  to  hit  me  again.  I'll  have  the  law 
on  him,  I  will,  if  he  lays  his  hand  to  me  again." 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  «3 

distinctions.  Among  the  hospitals  for  consump- 
tives, for  example,  one  may  make  a  specialty  of 
treating  incipient  cases,  in  the  hope  of  bringing 
about  an  arrest  of  the  disease  and  possibly  com- 
plete recovery.  Another  will  admit  patients  in  the 
last  stages  chiefly  irt  order  to  make  more  tolerable 
the  few  remaining  days  or  weeks  of  life  and  to  lessen 
the  chances  of  contagion.  One  maternity  hospital 
may  expect  to  keep  the  patient  during  confinement 
only,  and  another  may  have  facilities  permitting 
her  to  become  a  resident  three  or  four  months  before 
the  date  of  confinement  and  an  equal  or  longer  time 
afterwards.  There  is  further  the  division  of  work 
between  public  and  private  hospitals,  and  between 
those  which  are  connected  with  medical  schools  and 
those  which  are  supported  purely  as  charities.  In  most 
hospitals  provision  is  made  for  free  treatment,  but 
in  many,  patients  are  expected  to  meet  such  portion 
of  the  expense  as  they  can.  All  of  these  conditions 
vary  in  different  communities  and  can  best  be  studied 
with  reference  to  the  locality  in  which  one  lives.  The 
problem  of  the  charitable  is  to  consider  with  due 
care  the  extent  and  character  of  the  real  need, 
to  encourage  all  reasonable  substitutes  for  charity 
before  resorting  to  it,  but  when  it  is  needed  in  cases 
of  illness  to  see  that  it  acts  promptly,  efficiently  and 
judiciously.  In  cases  which  are  curable,  the  object 
is  speedy  recovery,  and  expense  and  trouble  to  this 
end  should  be  taken  unsparingly.  In  contagion, 
the  protection  of  the  community  is  of  prime  im- 
portance, but  this  does  not  excuse  brutality  or  lack 


I 


24  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

of  charitable  consideration  for  the  patient.  In 
chronic  cases,  besides  the  provision  of  any  neces- 
sary medical  care,  there  must  be  consideration  of 
the  burden  imposed  on  the  family,  the  possibility  of 
partial  self-support  in  some  instances,  and  all  the 
other  complicating  and  unique  features  which  each 
separate  case  will  surely  develop  if  fully  understood. 

Still  another  duty  remains.  It  is  that  of  checking 
any  undue  development  of  free  or  partially  free 
treatment  in  hospitals  or  dispensaries.  There  are 
many  motives  which  may  lead  to  such  over  develop- 
ment. The  desire  to  secure  material  for  clinical 
study,  and  for  purposes  of  instruction,  the  desire  to 
increase  the  private  practice  of  physicians  who  work 
in  the  dispensaries,  the  possibility  of  securing  liberal 
contributions  from  the  charitable  public  on  a  mis- 
understanding of  the  need,  are  among  them.  There 
is  much  to  be  said  on  both  sides  of  this  question  but 
on  the  whole  the  demand  for  a  thoughtful  considera- 
tion as  to  whether  in  some  communities  we  have 
not  made  access  to  free  medical  treatment  too  easy 
is  fully  justified. 

Orphans,  neglected  children,  and  the  children  of 
those  who  are  entirely  destitute,  bring  to  the  char- 
itably disposed  their  most  welcome  and  yet  most 
difficult  tasks.  The  asylums,  and  the  agencies  for 
finding  foster  homes  are  not  its  full  measure.  Much 
of  the  ordinary  relief  work  carried  on  by  churches, 
societies  and  individuals  is  inspired  by  a  concern 
for  the  welfare  of  children.  Parents  are  often  aided 
solely  because  children  would  otherwise  suffer. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  *5 

Clothing  and  food  are  often  given  by  those  who  be- 
come acquainted  with  the  children  in  day  school 
or  in  Sunday  school.  Kindergartens  and  day  nur- 
series are  established  for  their  benefit  while  they  still 
remain  under  the  care  of  their  parents.  Special  hos- 
pitals, fresh  air  enterprises,  lending  Tibraries  and 
countless  other  uplifting  and  ameliorating  influences 
are  devised,  because  of  a  desire  to  give  the  children 
a  better  chance  in  life  than  their  environment  seems 
likely  to  offer.  The  Settlements  find  one  of  their 
most  fruitful  fields  of  labor  in  the  study  of  new 
forms  of  helpfulness  calculated  to  improve  the  sur- 
roundings of  the  children.  Clubs,  classes,  parties, 
and  personal  attention  to  individual  children  spring 
from  such  inquiries.  Teachers  become  aware  that 
their  backward  pupils  are  sometimes  mentally,  and 
sometimes  physically  deficient,  and  specialized  schools 
for  the  instruction  of  those  who  are  sufficiently  ab- 
normal to  require  them  are  founded.  Medical  in- 
spectors are  even  appointed  under  public  authority 
for  the  official  inspection  of  public  school  children  to 
prevent  contagion,  to  discover  defective  eyesight, 
and  in  general  to  promote  the  conditions  of  sound 
health. 

Besides  these  multiform  agencies  which  are 
brought  to  bear  upon  children  in  their  own  families, 
it  is  found  necessary  to  devise  others  to  care  for 
children  who  by  death  or  otherwise  are  deprived 
of  their  natural  protectors.  The  foundling  is  the 
first  of  these  to  attract  attention.  The  helpless  in- 
fant left  upon  the  door-step  or  in  the  ash  barrel, 


26  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

makes  pathetic,  but,  as  experience  shows,  generally 
unavailing  appeal  to  the  community  at  large  for  the 
parental  care  which  its  unnatural  parents  have  with- 
drawn. Unavailing  because  the  death  rate  of  all 
foundling  asylums  is  very  high — sometimes  reach- 
ing one  hundred  per  centum  within  the  year.  If  a 
good  foster-nurse  can  be  found  quickly  the  child's 
life  may  be  saved.  An  institution  which  receives  both 
mother  and  child,  or  which  acts  chiefly  as  an  in- 
termediary between  the  door-step  and  a  qualified 
nurse,  whether  within  the  same  house  or  in  another, 
may  have  a  comparatively  low  death  rate  and  may 
be  of  great  usefulness.  That  foundlings  should  be 
cared  for,  and  in  the  way  best  approved  as  the  re- 
sult of  experience  admits  of  no  question.  Closely 
allied  to  this  charitable  duty  is  that  of  preventing 
the  abandonment  if  possible;  the  duty  of  aiding  the 
mother,  if  the  child  is  born  out  of  wedlock,  to  sup- 
port herself  and  child  as  nearly  as  possible  by  her 
own  efforts;  and  the  duty  of  compelling  the  puta- 
tive father,  if  he  can  be  found,  to  contribute  his 
due  share  of  this  support. 

Orphan  children  of  tender  years  may  be  cared 
for  by  relatives,  or  quietly  taken  into  the  homes  of 
those  who  stand  in  some  close  natural  relation  to 
the  children  or  to  their  parents.  In  these  ways  the 
fact  of  their  dependency  may  be  prevented  from 
disclosing  itself.  There  are  many,  however,  for 
whom  such  private  and  inconspicuous  care  does  not 
offer.  The  generosity  of  strangers  must  then  come 
into  play,  or  ths  community  through  public  agencies 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  27 

must  assume  the  burden.  The  two  remedies  are 
in  fact  found  side  by  side.  Private  benevolence 
founds  infant,  orphan  and  half-orphan  asylums. 
Religious  zeal  builds  sheltering  folds  and  protec- 
tories. Societies  are  formed  to  place  children  in 
free  homes  in  the  country,  to  secure  the  adoption 
of  the  young,  to  find  employment  for  those 
who  are  old  enough  to  work,  and  to  pay  board 
for  those  who  cannot  be  placed  in  any  other 
way.  There  is  at  the  present  time  a  most  interesting 
competition  among  the  various  methods  of  child 
saving,  but  no  one  doubts  that  it  offers  an  almost 
unlimited  opportunity  for  private  charity,  or  that 
when  our  charitable  efforts  are  multiplied  many 
fold  there  will  still  remain  for  the  state  an  impor- 
tant duty  in  caring  for  those  who  are  still  in  need 
of  shelter,  and  sustenance,  and  of  physical,  mental 
and  spiritual  training. 

Widows  with  small  children  are  often  in  need  of 
outside  help.  As  in  all  other  cases  this  help  may 
be  supplied  by  relatives  or  by  others  who  hold 
some  such  natural  relation  to  the  beneficiary  as  to 
preclude  the  idea  of  charity  in  its  ordinary  sense, 
but  It  is  obvious  that  it  is  an  unnatural  burden  for 
mothers  to  be  obliged  at  the  same  time  to  earn  the 
financial  support  and  to  attend  to  their  home  duties. 
Either  the  income  earned  will  necessarily  be  inade- 
quate or  the  children  personally  neglected.  Numer- 
ous devices  are  resorted  to  in  order  to  prevent  the 
necessity  for  charitable  assistance,  and  women  who 
are  in  good  health  and  who  have  exceptional  energy 


28  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

and  capacity  often  succeed.  The  day  nursery  may 
relieve  the  mother  of  the  oversight  of  her  children 
during  working  hours,  or,  if  they  are  of  suitable 
age,  they  may  be  left  with  neighbors,  relatives  or 
friends.  In  some  instances  two  women  upon  whom 
the  double  responsibility  rests  have  combined  forces 
and  established  a  division  of  work  by  which  one 
earns  an  income  while  the  other  looks  after  the  chil- 
dren of  both  at  home.  Again  the  policy  has  been 
pursued  of  relieving  the  mother  of  the  care  of  a 
sufficient  number  of  her  children  to  make  the  re- 
maining family  self-supporting.  Those  who  are  re- 
moved may  become  public  charges  or  may  be 
adopted  into  private  homes,  or  they  may  be  sup- 
ported in  asylums  at  private  expense. 
*  After  all  such  expedients  have  been  tried  and 
rejected  as  for  some  reason  inapplicable,  there  will 
remain  many  cases  in  which  the  wisest  and  most 
charitable  course  is  to  supply,  either  from  a  relief 
fund  or  from  special  funds  raised  for  the  purpose, 
a  definite  weekly  or  monthly  allowance  to  supple- 
ment what  the  mother  can  reasonably  be  expected 
to  earn,  or  even  to  avoid  the  necessity  for  any  re- 
munerative employment  on  her  part.  The  mother 
may  sometimes  be  in  delicate  health  which  would 
prevent  her  earning  a  living  for  herself  and  children 
but  not  her  giving  to  the  children  suitable  care  if  the 
financial  income  is  provided.  Others  will  be  able 
to  earn  a  portion  of  the  living  expenses  with  or 
without  friendly  assistance  in  securing  suitable  em- 
ployment, and  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  up  only 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  39 

the  remainder.  If  the  mother  is  of  good  character 
and  a  suitable  guardian  for  her  children,  assistance 
should  be  given  in  her  home  in  preference  to  the 
removal  of  any  of  the  children,,  although  there  will 
be  instances  in  which  the  welfare  of  the  child  will 
be  promoted  by  a  removal  from  the  home.1 

More  difficult  but  still  within  the  field  of  charity 
is  the  case  of  destitute  families,  in  which  the  man 
is  in  prison  or  in  which  he  is  incapable  of  support- 
ing his  family,  or  in  which  he  has  deserted  them. 
If  the  incapacity  is  due  to  illness,  accident  or  in-  \ 
firmity,  help  will  often  be  required  as  in  the  case  of 
widows  with  children.  If  it  is  due  to  inefficiency 
or  the  lack  of  moral  qualities,  charity  will  have  an 
educational  as  well  as  a  palliative  task,  and  the 
former  is  none  the  less  a  duty  because  it  may  some- 
times seem  wellnigh  hopeless. 

Single  men  or  single  women  who  are  homeless 
and  friendless  offer  peculiar  problems  which  are 
more  often  in  the  correctional  or  educational  than  in 
the  charitable  field,  although  the  desire  to  reclaim 
and  efficiently  help  those  who  have  thus  lost  con- 
nection with  the  social  and  industrial  world  should 
inspire  the  community  rather  than  a  desire  merely 
for  self-protection. 

The  provision  of  temporary  shelters  which  receive 
homeless  persons  free  or  for  nominal  charge  is  al- 
ways dangerous.  Even  a  work  test  attached  to  such 

shelters  does  not  solve  the  problem.    Intelligent  dis- 



1  See  Eighteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York  Char- 
ity Organization  Society  (1899-1900). 


30  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

crimination  as  to  the  length  of  time  for  which  in- 
mates are  permitted  to  remain,  and  a  personal  in- 
terest in  individuals,  extending  wherever  possible  to 
a  personal  acquaintance  with  their  former  lives, 
will  alone  give  the  information  upon  which  effi- 
cient assistance  can  be  based.  A  farm  colony  is 
often  advocated  as  a  means  of  training  those  who 
are  unable  after  a  reasonable  trial  to  find  regular 
employment.  It  is  probable  that  in  this  direction 
lies  the  ultimate  solution.  Accompanying  such  a 
farm  colony,  however,  the  chief  purpose  of  which 
should  be  educational  rather  than  correctional,  there 
should  be  shops  for  instruction  in  other  occupa- 
tions. It  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that  the  broken- 
down  and  unsuccessful  resident  of  the  city  can  easily 
be  made  into  a  successful  farmer,  and  while  suitable 
occupation  in  the  country  can  be  found  for  a  large 
proportion  of  those  who  are  compelled  to  develop 
regular  habits  of  industry,  there  will  remain  a  cer- 
tain proportion  that  will  succeed  better  in  trades 
and  occupations  peculiar  to  the  city. 

Such  are  some  of  the  most  frequent  types  of 
need  which  are  called  to  the  attention  of  charitable 
individuals  and  relief  agencies.  The  field  of  charity 
is,  however,  comprehensive  and  extends  to  unex- 
pected nooks  and  corners.  There  is  scarcely  any 
profession  or  calling  from  which  there  do  not  come 
occasional  applicants  for  assistance.  Clergymen, 
physicians,  merchants,  politicians,  army  officers  are 
found  in  the  long  line  of  dependents  almost  as  fre- 
quently as  mechanics,  waiters  or  laborers.  Married 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  3! 

couples  with  and  without  children,  widows,  wid- 
owers, unmarried  persons,  and  children  are  all  rep- 
resented by  large  classes.  There  are  those  also  of 
every  age  who  require  assistance  and  every  nation- 
ality, race  and  religion  contributes  its  quota.  The 
relief  of  distress,  the  education  and  training  of  those 
who  are  capable  of  such  aid,  the  removal  of  those 
causes  of  distress  which  lie  in  the  environment — 
these  are  the  field  of  charity. 


IV.  SUBSTITUTES  FOR  CHARITY 

CHARITY  does  not  embody  itself  completely  in 
private  societies  and  public  relief  systems.  While 
organized  agencies  necessarily  attract  attention  in 
any  formal  study,  since  it  is  easier  to  discover  them, 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  aid  extended  by 
private  individuals  to  those  in  distress  is  of  vast 
amount  in  the  aggregate,  although  usually  unre- 
corded. Says  Mr.  George  Silsbee  Hale  in  the  "  Me- 
morial History  of  Boston  " : 

"  There  is,  there  can  be,  no  record  of  the  work 
and  gifts  of  generous  stewards  of  the  abundance 
which  has  rewarded  lives  of  labor ;  of  the  men  whom 
the  living  recall,  the  steady  stream  of  whose  annual 
beneficence  was  a  king's  ransom ;  of  those  whom  the 
living  know,  whose  annual  gifts  are  an  ample  for- 
tune, or  of  the  '  honorable  women  '  whose  lives  are 
full  of  good  deeds  and  almsgiving." 

It  is  a  question  whether  the  unmeasured,  but 
certainly  large,  amount  of  neighborly  assistance 
given  in  the  tenement  houses  of  the  city,  precisely 
as  in  a  New  England  village  or  in  a  frontier  settle- 
ment, does  not  rank  first  of  all  among  the  means  for 
the  alleviation  of  distress.  The  proverbial  kindness 
of  the  poor  to  the  poor  finds  ample  illustration  in  the 

32 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  33 

congested  quarters  of  the  city,  even  though  physical 
proximity  there  counts  least  in  the  feeling  of  re- 
sponsibility for  neighbors.  One  of  the  most  inter- 
esting generalizations  made  by  Mr.  Charles  Booth 
is  that,  while  all  classes  in  London  give  largely  in 
charity,  the  poorest  people  give  the  most  in  propor- 
tion to  what  they  have.  This  is  equally  true  in 
American  communities.  What  the  housekeeper  and 
the  fellow-tenants  do  for  the  temporary  relief  of 
those  whose  income  is  cut  off  by  accident,  sickness, 
or  misfortune  must  be  given  a  large  place  in  any 
statement  of  relief  systems. 

Such  assistance  as  this  has  many  advantages  over 
that  given  by  organized  societies.  There  is  little 
probability  of  imposition,  of  excessive  relief,  or  of 
relief  that  is  ill-adapted  to  its  purpose,  such  as  is 
common  in  the  wholesale  distribution  often  made  by 
public  officials,  and  sometimes  shows  itself  in  the 
work  of  private  agencies.  We  have  no  method  com- 
parable to  that  advocated  by  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Chal- 
mers for  Glasgow,1  i.  e.,  throwing  the  responsibility 
for  relief  entirely  upon  the  private  resources  of  im- 
mediate neighbors ;  and  such  a  plan  might  prove  in- 
adequate, but  as  an  element  in  the  instinctive  and 
unorganized  methods  by  which  the  community  dis- 
tributes among  its  members  the  shock  of  unexpected 
want,  informal  neighborly  assistance  is  always  to  be 
given  a  liberal  recognition. 


1  Thomas  Chalmers :  The  Christian  and  Civic  Economy 
of  Large  Towns.  Abridged  by  Charles  R.  Henderson. 
New  York,  1900. 


34  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

Allied  with  this,  although  upon  a  somewhat  dif- 
ferent basis,  may  be  placed  the  professional  services 
of  physicians  in  their  gratuitous  practice,  of  which 
some  falls  to  the  share  of  every  physician;  the  in- 
formation and  advice  given  by  lawyers,  who  un- 
tangle many  a  snarl,  and  protect  from  many  a  villainy 
without  compensation;  assistance  given  by  church 
members  and  pastors  individually  to  their  own  poor, 
no  mention  of  which  appears  upon  the  official  rec- 
ords of  the  church ;  credit  extended  with  little  or  no 
hope  of  payment  by  retail  dealers,  who  may  be 
nearly  as  poor  as  their  customers;  forbearance  of 
landlords  in  the  matter  of  rents;  the  advance  of 
wages,  before  they  are  earned,  by  employers;  and 
the  various  other  kinds  of  assistance  analogous  to 
these.  They  are  but  one  step  removed  from  that 
neighborly  charity  which  gives  because  of  personal 
acquaintance.  It  may  be  said  that  these  are  pro- 
fessional or  business  relations,  rather  than  personal, 
yet  the  underlying  motive  is  similar.  The  impulse 
is  a  charitable  one,  and  if  in  some  instances  it  is  a 
professional  rather  than  a  charitable  spirit,  it  is  a 
magnanimous,  altruistic  professional  spirit,  spring- 
ing from  the  same  qualities  that  give  rise  to  neigh- 
borliness,  friendship,  and  charity.  It  is  wholly 
unmeasured  and  immeasurable  in  amount.  It  is  not 
to  be  denied  that  it  is  sometimes  ill-advised  and  un- 
fortunate in  its  results  and  that  it  often  needs 
direction  and  training. 

It  is,  however,  fundamentally  sound  and  sensible 
as  a  feature  in  the  relief  of  distress.  It  is  one  of 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  35 

those  elastic  and  illusive  but  necessary  social  forces 
which  supplement  organized  schemes  and  insure 
needed  assistance  where,  from  ignorance  of  the 
necessity,  or  from  a  failure  on  the  part  of  those 
who  are  in  trouble,  to  act  in  what  might  be  consid- 
ered the  rational  manner,  the  more  systematic  plans 
might  miscarry.  It  is,  therefore,  a  creditable  as  well 
as  a  considerable  element  in  the  relief  system,  and 
it  is  not  the  least  of  its  advantages  that  it  gives 
peculiar  scope  for  the  development  of  those  quali- 
ties in  the  individual  which  eventually  provide 
organized  charity  as  well  as  individual  assistance. 
Such  charity  as  this  is  spontaneous  in  all  professions 
and  callings  and  among  persons  of  all  grades  of  in- 
come. 

It  might  not  seem  amiss  to  enumerate  in  this  con- 
nection, as  an  agency  for  the  relief  of  needy  families, 
those  means  of  self-protection  from  the  evil  results 
of  sickness,  accident,  and  death  which  rest  upon  a 
business  basis,  such  as  benefit  societies,  benefit  feat- 
ures of  labor  organizations,  fraternal  associations, 
insurance  societies,  and  clubs  of  various  kinds.1 
They  are  not,  of  course,  charities,  although  they  are 
of  the  greatest  possible  service  in  making  charity 
in  its  lower  forms  unnecessary.  If  such  preventive 
organizations  covered  the  whole  field  of  industry, 
and  if  personal  thrift  were  developed  to  the  point 
at  which  laborers  did  their  own  saving  instead  of 
paying  large  sums  to  others  to  do  their  saving  for 

'Mary  Willcox  Brown:  The  Development  of  Thrift 
New  York,  1898. 


36  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

them,  the  need  for  providing  relief  would  almost 
disappear,  as  the  number  of  needy  families  would  be 
so  small  that  relatives  or  neighbors  would  easily  be 
found  to  care  for  them.  There  would  still  be  room 
for  both  the  kinds  of  charity  to  which  reference  has 
last  been  made,  but  they  could  be  exercised  to  a 
considerable  extent  in  higher  spheres.  Instead  of 
providing  fuel,  clothing,  and  shelter,  they  would 
give  increased  opportunities  for  social,  educational, 
and  industrial  advancement,  and  would  only  in  rare 
instances  need  to  provide  the  necessaries  of  life  for 
those  who  are  unable  to  supply  their  own  wants. 
Plans  of  insurance  and  self-help  are  not  a  part  of  a 
system  of  relief,  but  they  are  not  to  be  overlooked 
as  welcome  alternatives. 

There  remains  a  class  of  special  agencies  which 
have  a  part  in  the  relief  of  needy  families  but  which 
do  not  administer  material  relief  in  the  ordinary 
sense.  Illustrations  of  these  are:  First,  the  free 
employment  agencies,  and  others  which,  while  mak- 
ing a  reasonable  charge  for  the  services  rendered, 
do  this  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  possible  for  one 
who  is  without  means  to  take  advantage  of  their 
facilities,  making  payment  after  employment  has 
been  secured  and  wages  received.  Second,  day 
nurseries,  kindergartens  and  manual  training  or  in- 
dustrial schools,  which,  either  without  compensation, 
or  at  moderate  prices,  relieve  working  women  of  the 
care  of  their  children  during  the  hours  when  they 
are  employed.  Third,  agencies  for  the  promotion 
of  thrift,  which  provide  easy  means  of  saving  small 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  37 

amounts,  thus  lessening  the  temptation  to  extrava- 
gance and  making  the  way  easy  for  the  safe  invest- 
ment of  small  sums. 

The  free  employment  agencies  have  sprung  in 
part  from  the  desire  to  substitute  normal  employ- 
ment both  for  relief  and  for  artificially  created  work, 
and  in  part  from  the  discovery  of  abuses  practiced 
upon  those  needing  employment  by  some  of  the 
ordinary  commercial  agencies,  which  take  advantage 
of  the  necessity  of  the  poor  to  compel  them  to  ac- 
cept exorbitant  terms.  So  far  as  the  first  of  these 
two  objects  is  concerned,  the  free  bureaus  have  had 
very  limited  success.  In  order  to  win  the  confidence 
of  employers,  they  are  under  the  necessity  of  recom- 
mending only  competent  persons  who  can  provide 
satisfactory  references,  but  such  persons  can  ordi- 
narily find  employment  themselves.  The  natural 
result  is  that  the  lists  of  persons  who  are  really 
placed  in  positions  do  not,  to  any  very  great  ex- 
tent, overlap  the  lists  of  the  beneficiaries  of  relief 
societies.  The  natural  beneficiary  of  the  free  em- 
ployment agencies  is  in  a  slightly  higher  class  in- 
dustrially than  the  beneficiary  of  public  or  private 
agencies.  Nevertheless  both  the  free  employment 
agency  and  those  which  aid  with  the  understanding 
that  payment  be  made  after  employment  is  secured, 
render  an  important  service,  and  constitute  an  ele- 
ment in  the  general  system  of  aiding  those  who  are 
in  distress  which  cannot  be  neglected.  Some  states 
among  which  are  New  York  and  Illinois,  now  main- 
tain free  public  employment  bureaus. 


f 


38  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

The  day  nursery  in  its  simplest  form  is  a  home 
where  the  children  may  be  left  during  the  day  in 
order  to  relieve  the  mother.1  This  is  a  compara- 
tively new  form  of  assistance,  but  it  has  speedily 
become  popular,  and  its  usefulness  is  unquestion- 
able. Two  objects  have  been  kept  in  view  by  the 
managers  of  day  nurseries:  First,  to  provide  care 
for  children  who  would  otherwise  be  homeless  or 
without  proper  care  through  the  day,  because  the 
mother  is  necessarily  employed.  Second,  to  enable 
those  mothers  who  otherwise  must  stay  at  home  to 
accept  employment,  thus  obviating  the  necessity  for 
relief.  It  has  already  become  reasonably  clear  that 
indiscriminate  aid  in  the  form  of  care  for  children 
in  day  nurseries  is  nearly  as  objectionable  as  any 
other  indiscriminate  relief.  To  enable  the  mother 
to  work  when  the  father  is  lazy  or  shiftless  or  in- 
competent is  sometimes  to  incur  direct  responsibility 
for  perpetuating  bad  family  conditions.  To  receive 
children  whose  mothers  are  not  employed -but  who 
can  scarcely  otherwise  keep  their  children  from  the 
street,  seems  like  a  natural  and  praiseworthy  course ; 
but  experienced  workers  come  to  refuse  to  do  this, 
on  the  ground  that  it  removes  the  chief  incentive 
for  better  accommodations  at  home.  To  receive 
children  whose  mother  works  from  a  mere  whim 
or  from  the  desire  to  have  a  little  more  in  the  way 
of  dress  or  furniture  is  a  doubtful  policy,  as  it  may 


xThe  Scope  of  Day  Nursery  Work:  Mary  H.  Dewey. 
Proceedings  of  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rection, 1897,  p.  105. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  39 

4  become  an  inducement  to  neglect  home  duties.1 
The  somewhat  striking  discovery  was  made  by  the 
managers  of  one  day  nursery  that  by  providing 
practically  free  care  for  the  children  of  certain  col- 
ored waiters  they  were  enabling  them  to  work  at 
rather  less  than  market  wages  for  the  well-to-do 
students  of  a  great  university. 

Such  are  the  economic  and  social  problems  which 
are  beginning  to  complicate  the  day  nursery,  as  in- 
deed they  affect  all  charitable  work.  They  are  not 
incapable  of  solution.  Here  as  in  other  forms  of 
child-saving  work  a  snare  lies  before  those  who 
hope  "  to  save  the  child  ",  disregarding  the  other 
members  of  the  family.  The  family  must  be  con- 
sidered as  a  whole.  Neither  the  child  nor  the  adult 
can  be  dealt  with  separately.  The  managers  of  the 
day  nursery  who  are  actuated  by  a  desire  to  be  of 
real  service  to  the  families  whose  children  are  re- 
ceived, must  in  each  instance  face  the  question  as 
to  whether  the  family  is  a  proper  one  to  receive 
this  particular  form  of  assistance,  whether  the  re- 
sult in  this  particular  instance  is  likely  on  the  whole 
to  be  beneficial.  It  will  often  happen,  as  in  the  case 
of  needy  widows  with  small  children,  homeless 
children,  children  of  sick  mothers  or  of  mothers 
who  are  obliged  to  work  because  of  sick  fathers, 
that  the  day  nursery  is  a  distinct  blessing,  offering 
self-help  which  is  always,  when  practicable,  the 
best  kind  of  help. 

*Day    Nursery  Work,    Miss    M.  H.  Burgess,    National 
Conference  of  Charities,  and  Correction,  1894,  p.  424. 


40  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

The  introduction  to  the  family  which  is  given 
by  caring  for  the  children  in  a  day  nursery  can 
nearly  always  be  followed  up  with  advantage  by  the 
matron  or  the  managers.  By  suggestion  and  en- 
couragement the  attempt  may  be  made  to  increase 
the  sense  of  responsibility  on  the  part  of  parents  and 
aid  may  be  given  in  building  up  a  healthy,  prudent 
family  life.1 

The  kindergarten  and  the  manual  training  or  in- 
dustrial school  as  educational  agencies  are  im- 
portant parts  of  the  system  of  public  education. 
They  are  referred  to  here  incidentally,  because  to 
some  extent  they  perform  a  service  similar  to  that 
of  the  day  nurseries,  caring  for  children  who  would 
otherwise  demand  the  time  of  the  mother  who  has 
had  to  become  the  bread  winner.  The  Child-Saving 
Committee  of  the  Twenty-fourth  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction  2  took  the  ground 
that  the  day  nursery,  kindergarten,  and  manual 
training  school  are  aids  to  child-saving  which  ought 
not  to  be  dependent  upon  fitful  benevolence;  but 
that  they  should  be  placed  in  alignment  with  com- 
mon schools,  for  the  protection  and  culture  of  child 
life  and  the  aid  of  those  who  toil  for  the  support 
of  humble  homes.  Public  sentiment  would  gen- 
erally support  this  proposition  so  far  as  it  relates  to 
the  second  and  third  of  these  classes,  but  the  day 
nursery  would  still  be  held  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 

1  Boston  Charities  Directory.  1899,  p.  68.    Description  ol 
Free  Day  Nurseries  supported  by  Mrs.  Quincy  A.  Shaw. 
1  Held  in  Toronto :   1897. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  41 

try  to  be  a  suitable  object  of  private  benevolence, 
rather  than  an  institution  for  public  maintenance 
and  control.  The  day  nursery  is  frequently  as- 
sociated with  a  social  settlement,  a  church,  or  a 
charitable  society,  but  it  is  as  frequently  established 
independently  and  there  is  now  a  Federation  of 
Day  Nurseries  which  is  national  in  its  scope. 

The  earliest  organized  effort  to  promote  small 
savings  was  that  inaugurated  by  the  Charity  Or- 
ganization Society  of  Newport  in  the  year  1880. 
Discovering  that  many  of  the  poor  who  applied  to 
them  for  relief  during  the  winter  had  exactly  the 
same  income  as  others  who  lived  comfortably 
throughout  the  year,  through  better  management 
and  greater  providence,  the  Society  secured  the 
services  of  four  women  who  volunteered  to  call 
every  week  from  house  to  house  to  collect  the  small 
sums  that  these  people  could  afford  to  lay  by.1  In 
estimating  the  value  of  this  work  a  recent  report  of 
the  Society  2  says,  "  There  is  the  encouragement  of 
habits  of  economy,  foresight,  and  thrift  among  the 
small  wage-earners  of  our  community;  there  is  the 
prevention  of  hardship  and  partial  dependence  on 
charity  which  would  be  consequent  upon  a  winter 
of  enforced  idleness  or  uncertain  employment;  for 
the  most  of  the  saving  is  done  in  the  summer 
months  when  the  facilities  for  money-making  are 
increased,  and  the  most  of  the  withdrawals  of  sav- 


Saving  Society;    Mrs.  John  H.  Scribner,  National 
Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  1887,  p.  143. 
'Newport,  1899. 


42  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

ings  come  in  the  winter  when  those  who  secure 
labor  during  our  season  are  thrown  out  of  work  at 
its  finish.  There  is  the  personal  contact  of  our  poor 
with  the  savings  collectors,  a  contact  which  almost 
always  ripens  into  a  friendship  affording  oppor- 
tunities for  advice,  comfort,  and  helpful  suggestions 
in  household  administration." 

From  this  beginning  the  system  of  small  savings 
has  extended  throughout  the  country.  The  Penny 
Provident  Fund  of  the  Charity  Organization  So- 
ciety of  the  City  of  New  York  was  organized  in 
1888  and  now  collects  annually  about  $90,000  from 
over  57,000  depositors.  The  Committee  of  the 
Fund  announces  distinctly  that  it  is  not  a  savings 
bank,  but  aims  to  do  what  savings  banks  do  not 
do — to  invite  savings  of  small  sums,  less  than  one 
dollar,  from  adults  as  well  as  children.  Deposits 
of  one  cent  and  upward  are  receipted  for  by  stamps 
attached  to  a  stamp  card  given  to  each  depositor, 
analogous  to  the  postal  savings  system  of  Englanc 
When  a  sufficient  sum  has  thus  been  saved,  de- 
positors are  encouraged  to  open  an  account  in 
savings  bank,  where  interest  can  be  earned. 


V.  ORGANIZED  CHARITY 

THERE  have  been  three  distinctly  progressive 
movements  in  the  organization  of  private  relief. 
One  of  these  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  or  earlier.  This  was  the  establish- 
ment of  /reliejjspcieties,  which  were  to  take  the  place 
of  indiscriminate  alms-giving  by  individuals  and 
which  were  to  increase  the  funds  available  for  sup- 
plying the  needs  of  particular  classes  which  were 
thought  to  have  been  neglected.  This  movement 
has  continued  intermittently  to  the  present  time,  and 
every  year  sees  the  formation  of  new  societies  and 
funds.  The  second  was  the  formation  oil  associations 
for  improving  the  condition  of  the  poor,  whose  func- 
tions were  not  to  be  confined  to  relief,  although  they 
absorbed  in  many  instances  older  and  smaller  so- 
cieties. As  the  name  indicates,  their  founders  ex- 
pected that  these  associations  would  promote  benev- 
olent enterprises  of  various  kinds,  and  they  were 
not  to  deal  in  relief  at  all  except  in  so  far  as  this 
could  be  made  a  lever  for  the  permanent  elevation 
of  those  to  whom  it  is  given.  They  were  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  poor.  The  particular  busi- 
ness and  objects  of  these  associations,  as  is  stated  in 
the  incorporation  of  the  one  first  formed,  are  the  ele- 

43 


44  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

vation  of  the  physical  and  moral  condition  of  the  in- 
digent, and,  so  far  as  is  compatible  with  these  ob- 
jects, the  relief  of  their  necessities. 

Unfortunately  these  objects  were  seldom  kept  as 
clearly  in  view  as  trfey  were  at  the  time  when  the 
first  societies  were  founded.  At  the 'end  of  the 
seventies,  they  had  become  for  the  most  part  simply 
relief  societies,  and  often  their  administration  of  re- 
lief had  fallen  into  routine  methods  and  was  far 
from  contributing  as  much  as  it  should  to  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  physical  and  moral  condition  of  the  in- 
digent. There  were  then  in  many  cities,  under 
various  names,  voluntary  general  relief  societies, 
professedly  ready  to  undertake  any  sort  of  humane 
task  within  their  ability.1  Little  use  was  made  of 
voluntary  friendly  visitors,  and  consequently  or- 
ganized relief,  if  it  accomplished  its  purpose  of  aid- 
ing the  destitute,  did  not  educate  the  charitable 
public  in  intelligent  and  discriminating  relief  meth- 
ods. Public  out-door  relief  was  in  many  places 
lavish  and  its  administration  careless,  extravagant, 
and,  in  some  instances,  corrupt.  There  were  no 
adequate  safeguards  against  deception,  no  common 
registration  of  relief  to  prevent  duplication,  and 
private  almsgiving  while  it  was  profuse  in  meeting 
the  obvious  distress,  was  admittedly  and  wholly  in- 
adequate in  meeting  situations  which  require  gen- 
erous financial  contributions  and  long-continued  and 


'Report  of  the  Committee  on  History  of  Charity 
Organization:  Charles  D.  Kellogg,  Twentieth  Nation- 
al Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  1893. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  45 

persistent  personal  attention.  To  meet  these  recog- 
nized evils  and  the  lack  of  co-operation  the  charity 
organization  societies,  one  of  which  had  been  suc- 
cessfully in  operation  in  London,  were  proposed 
by  those  who  were  considering  possible  remedies. 

The  essential  features  of  this  third  movement,* 
which  distinguished  it,  not  because  they  were  novel 
ideas,  but  because  they  were  worked  out  for  the 
first  time  consistently,  and  because  the  societies  have 
clung  to  them  with  steadily  increasing  faith  in  theirt 
potency,  are  as  follows:  First:  Investigation.  In 
^modern  organized  charity  this  has  come  to  mean 
something  more  than  it  had  meant  for  those  who 
had  proclaimed  the  necessity  for  discriminating  be- 
tween the  deserving  and  the  undeserving.  Inves- 
tigation is  not  solely  or  even  primarily  for  the  pur- 
pose of  thwarting  the  expectations  of  imposters.  It 
is  not  even  merely  a  device  for  preventing  the  waste 
of  charity  upon  unworthy  objects,  in  order  that  it 
may  be  used  for  those  who  are  really  in  need.  In- 
vestigation is  rather  an  instrument  for  the  intelli- 
gent treatment  of  distress.  It  is  analogous  to  the 
diagnosis  of  the  physician,  who  does  not  attempt 
to  treat  a  serious  malady  from  a  glance  at  its  super- 
ficial indications,  but  who  carefully  inquires  into 
hidden  and  early  manifestations  of  the  disease,  and 
seeks  to  know  as  much  as  possible  of  the  compli- 
cating influences  with  which  he  must  reckon  in  ef- 
fecting a  cure.  Investigation,  therefore,  while  it 
should  never  be  inconsiderate,  or  blundering,  or 
heartless,  must  be  painstaking,  conscientious,  and 


46  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

honest.  It  will  exclude  irrelevant  gossip,  but  will 
embrace  a  close  scrutiny  of  the  actual  facts,  its 
aim  being  not  to  enable  the  investigating  agent  to 
affix  a  label  of  worthy  or  unworthy,  but  to  de- 
termine what  help  can  be  given,  from  what  source 
*t  should  come,  and  how  these  agencies  may  be 
brought  into  definite  and  hearty  co-operation. 

This  kind  of  investigation  has  been  developed 
as  one  feature  of  organized  charity.  Its  possibilities 
•have  been  only  gradually  unfolded.  They  are 
realized  only  gradually  in  the  experience  of  individ- 
ual workers.  Investigations  made  at  the  outset,* 
even  by  one  who  has  thoroughly  grasped  the  prin- 
ciples involved,  are  certain  to  appear  to  himself,  in 
the  light  of  later  experience,  to  be  either  superficial 
and  inadequate,  or  crude,  mechanical,  and  unneces- 
sarily elaborate.  A  bad  investigation  may  be  either 
too  full  or  too  meagre,  or  it  may  be  neither. 

The  investigation  is  made  not  for  its  own  sake, 
but  as  a  necessary  step  in  the  careful  and  adequate 
remedy  of  the  defects  or  misfortunes  that  have 
brought  the  applicant  to  seek  relief.  In  the  ma- 
jority of  cases,  however,  if  the  investigation  is  wise 
and  complete  it  will  reveal  personal  sources  and 
facts  which  will  enable  the  situation  to  be  met  with- 
out calling  in  outside  aid,  and  in  this  way,  in  a 
large  proportion  of  instances,  investigation  might 
be  said  to  become  a  substitute  for  relief. 

The  second  fundamental  characteristic  of  orga- 
nized charity  is  its  insistence  upon  co-operation.  By 
this  is  meant  not  merely  agreement  among  various 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  47 

societies  and  organized  agencies  upon  general  plans 
of  co-operation,  but  rather  co-operation  in  dealing 
with  individual  cases  of  distress  upon  the  basis  of 
the  facts  ascertained  by  investigation.  It  involves, 
in  other  words,  acceptance  of  the  plan  of  relief 
which  is  calculated  to  remgdy  the  defects  or  to  sup-* 
ply  the  deficiencies  that  have  been  discovered.  This 
may  mean  that  each  of  the  co-operating  individuals 
or  societies  shall  supplement  the  efforts  of  the  others 
by  contributing  a  part  of  the  money  or  work 
needed ;  or  it  may  mean  that  they  will  agree  to 
a  division  of  work,  each  leaving  to  the  other  a  part 
for  which  its  facilities  are  adapted ;  or  it  may  mean 
a  division  of  the  cases  to  be  dealt  with,  each  agree- 
ing to  leave  entirely  to  the  other  certain  classes  of 
individuals  or  families  whose  needs  are  to  be  studied 
and  adequately  met  By  the  agency  to  which  they  are 
assigned. 

One  of  the  simplest  forms  of  co-operation  is  that 
between  the  church  and  the  relief  agency,  secured 
by  ^either  directly  frorn  the  other  in  the  case  of  a 
given  family,  or  secured  by  the  agent  of  the  charity 
organization  society  from  both.  In  this  co-opera- 
tion material  needs-should  be  supplied  by  the  relief 
agency,  and  the  church  should  provide  the  necessary 
spiritual  oversight  and  the  necessary  formative  in- 
fluences for  the  children,  and,  if  necessary,  reforma- 
tive influences  for  older  members  of  the  family.  It 
sometimes  happens  that  the  family  has  no  need  of 
reformation,  that  it  contains  within  itself  all  the 
necessary  resources  for  education  and  training, 


48  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

while  the  financial  income  alone  is  lacking  or  insuf- 
ficient. Even  under  such  circumstances  the  com- 
panionship of  new  friends  may  not  be  amiss ;  conso- 
lation in  sickness  or  trouble,  encouragement  in 
periods  of  unusual  difficulties,  enlargement  of  social 
opportunities,  may  all  be  entirely  appropriate. 

But  in  most  cases  besides  this  agreeable  and  com- 
paratively easy  form  of  friendly  visiting,  there  will 
be  a  need  for  the  performance  of  sterner  tasks. 
Habits  of  intemperance,  shiftlessness,  and  foolish 
expenditure  will  need  to  be  broken  up.  Downright 
ignorance  and  stupidity  will  need  to  be  overcome. 
It  is  necessary  to  give  wise  counsel  concerning  em- 
ployment and  to  suggest  readjustment  of  domestic 
arrangements.  Such  suggestion  and  instruction 
from  one  who  has  succeeded  in  life  proffered  to 
those  who  are  less  successful  might  easily  become 
an  impertinence  and  would  ordinarily  be  resented, 
except  from  those  who  are  already  on  an  intimate 
footing.  Application  for  assistance,  however,  when 
made  either  to  an  individual  stranger,  or  at  the 
bureau  of  a  relief  agency,  is  in  itself  a  confession 
of  complete  or  partial  failure  in  the  industrial 
struggle,  and,  although  it  may  be  accompanied  by 
no  personal  fault,  it  opens  the  door  for  demanding 
complete  confidence  as  to  all  the  circumstances 
which  have  caused  the  partial  or  complete  failure. 
Such  application  is  ordinarily  made  for  the  first 
time  only  at  some  crisis  in  life  which  makes  con- 
fidence easy,  sweeping  away  the  ordinary  barriers 
of  reserve.  The  friendly  visitor,  whether  supplied 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  49 

by  the  church  or  directly  by  the  charity  organiza- 
tion society,  must  appreciate  the  value  of  such  op- 
portunities and  utilize  them  to  gain  an  insight  into 
the  source  of  the  new  neighbor's  troubles,  laying 
here  the  foundation  for  helpful  personal  relations 
which  are  to  be  continued  until  the  causes  of  the  de- 
pendence have  been  removed,  if  they  are  removable, 
or  until  the  plan  for  supplying  any  necessary  de- 
ficiency of  income  shall  have  been  thoroughly 
worked  out  and  put  into  successful  operation. 

The  working  out  of  such  a  plan  involving,  as  we  < 
have  seen,  investigation  and  co-operation — of  which 
one  element  should  always  be  friendly  personal  in- 
terest, and  another  oftentimes  temporary  or  con- 
tinuous material  relief — the  working  out  of  such 
a  plan  and  carrying  it  through,  with  the  aid  of  the 
friendly  visitor,  of  the  relief  agency,  and,  not  least, 
of  the  family  or  individual  to  be  helped — the  work- 
ing out  of  a  definite  plan  for  meeting  the  precise 
difficulties  to  be  overcome,  and  the  long-continued 
personal  oversight  which  such  a  plan  involves,  is 
what  is  meant  by  the  organization  of  charity,  and  it 
is  the  peculiar  task  of  the  charity  organization 
societies,  or  of  the  relief  societies  and  individuals 
that  do  their  work  on  behalf  of  the  needy  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  principles  of  organized  charity. 

A  special  service  rendered  by  the  charity  organi- 
zation societies,  so  important  that  it  may  be  de- 
scribed as  the  third  essential  feature  of  the  move- 
ment, is  the  provision  of  a"  central  registration  of 
the  relief  work  of  such  societies,  churches  and  in- 


50  THE  PRACTICE  O.^  CHARITY 

dividuals  as  voluntarily  make  use  of  the  bureau  es- 
tablished for  this  purpose.  No  community  has  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  a  complete  registration  of  what 
is  done  for  the  destitute  but  in  many  instances  all 
the  important  organized  charities  regularly  report 
to  the  bureau  and  receive  in  return  information  as 
to  what  is  done  by  other  agencies  for  families  in 
whom  they  are  interested. 

Even  if  there  are  not  formal  reports  from  the  re- 
lief societies,  the  registration  bureau  of  an  active 
\  charity  organization  society  gradually  accumu- 
lates the  information  that  is  of  value  concerning 
nearly  all  of  the  families  asking  for  relief  and  alms, 
certainly  concerning  those  who  are  known  to  two 
or  more  relief  agencies.  This  information  is  ob- 
tained in  the  course  of  the  investigations  made  by 
the  society  when  application  is  made  at  its  own 
office  or  to  individuals,  churches,  and  societies  who 
request  an  investigation  by  the  society.  The  ideal 
plan,  however,  is  undoubtedly  for  the  registration 
bureau  to  receive  this  information  directly  from  the 
relief  agencies  with  the  understanding  that  it  is 
confidential  and  is  to  be  imparted  only  to  those 
having  a  legitimate  interest. 

One  axiom  upon  which  it  has  been  necessary  to 
^'insist,  obvious  as  it  seems,  is  that  relief  must  be 
efficient  and  adequate.  Indiscriminate  almsgiving 
practiced  through  the  centuries  seems  to  have  ob- 
scured certain  elementary  and  extremely  obvious 
truths.  That  giving  money  or  the  necessities  of 
life  without  return  to  persons  who  are  leading 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  51 

vicious  and  useless  lives  is  in  effect  manufacturing 
vice  and  degradation ;  that  it  is  a  travesty  upon  the 
name  of  charity  to  give  a  dollar  which  by  barely  sus- 
taining life  for  a  short  time  outside  a  suitable  in- 
stitution will  frustrate  the  efforts  which  friends 
already  interested  in  the  beneficiary  are  making  to 
induce  him  to  accept  decent  shelter  and  provision  of 
the  necessaries  of  life  within  such  an  institution; 
that  the  giving  or  withholding  of  relief  should  be 
decided  primarily  with  reference  to  its  probable 
effect  upon  the  one  to  whom  it  is  given,  and  that  re- 
lief should  not  be  given  which  is  directly  harmful, 
in  the  vain  hope  that  it  will  in  some  way  promote 
the  personal  salvation  of  the  one  who  gives;  and 
finally  that  charity  remains  a  duty  even  though  one 
may  have  made  many  mistakes  in  its  ministrations, 
are  among  these  elementary  truths. 

It  is  far  easier  to  drop  into  slipshod  methods  of 
administration  than  to  maintain  a  high  standard  of 
real  efficiency.  It  is  easier  to  decide  to  give  half  a 
ton  of  coal  to  all  of  the  "  deserving  "  families  making 
application  for  it  than  to  deal  intelligently  with  each 
family,  giving  in  some  instances,  when  it  is  right  to 
do  so,  several  tons  of  coal,  and  in  other  instances 
merely  a  bucketful  until  other  and  really  adequate 
means  are  found  of  relieving  the  real  or  apparent 
distress,  and  in  still  others,  where  it  may  be  done 
without  too  much  danger,  leaving  the  applicants  to 
learn  by  personal  privation  the  necessity  for  saving 
from  even  a  meagre  income  sufficient  for  the  purchase 
of  fuel  and  of  other  necessaries.  When  the  city  gives 


5 2  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

a  pension  of  fifty  dollars  a  year  to  all  of  the  indigent 
blind  who  have  resided  in  it  for  two  years,  it  affords 
a  shining  example  of  inadequate  relief.  The  in- 
digent blind  can  no  more  be  thrown  into  a  general 
class  and  treated  in  a  wholesale  manner  than  can  the 
indigent  who  have  lost  one  eye  or  those  who  have 
failed  in  the  management  of  fruit  stands.  The  prin- 
ciple upon  which  organized  charity  insists  is  that 
relief  must  be  adequate  in  amount,  however  large 
the  number  of  persons  or  agencies  that  must  unite 
to  provide  it ;  that  it  must  be  adapted  to  its  purpose, 
for  example,  not  consisting  of  broken  food  if  the 
need  is  for  a  shovel  to  enable  one  to  take  work ;  that 
the  miserable  habit  of  finding  petty  excuses  for  ac- 
ceding to  the  wishes  of  the  applicant  against  the 
real  judgment  of  the  one  who  makes  the  decision 
must  be  absolutely  abandoned.  A  case  record  which 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  writer  recently  tells  the 
story  of  four  generations  of  dependency  caused  di- 
rectly by  the  character  of  the  persons  constituting 
the  three  generations  which  had  reached  maturity. 
An  agent,  to  whom  these  facts  were  or  should  have 
been  known,  calling  at  the  request  of  some  citizen 
who  had  referred  the  case,  gave  groceries  upon  the 
first  visit,  entering  upon  the  record :  "  Family  seems 
unworthy.  Gave  groceries  because  family  lives  in 
basement  and  father  attempts  to  provide  otherwise." 
There  was  no  explanation  of  what  "  otherwise " 
meant,  but  it  could  truthfully  mean  only  otherwise 
than  by  honest  labor,  and  the  action  of  the  visitor 
is  another  instance  of  inadequate  relief. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  53 

Organized  charity  in  the  larger  towns  is  usually, 
but  not  necessarily,  represented  by  a  society  known 
by  some  such  name  as  the  charity  organization 
society,  or  the  associated  charities.  It  may  be  rep- 
resented only  by  individuals  who  accept  its  prin- 
ciples, or  by  a  relief  society,  or  an  association  for 
improving  the  condition  of  the  poor.  Organized 
charity  has  been  defined  by  the  General  Agent  of  one 
of  the  latter  agencies  as  "  the  association  of  individ- 
uals seeking  in  an  enlightened  way,  through  an  ex- 
perience gained  in  common,  to  encourage,  develop, 
and  control  that  impulse  of  the  human  heart  which 
impels  the  individual  to  aid  those  whom  he  believes 
to  be  in  distress."  x 

In  a  few  instances  the  lethargy  and  inefficiency 
which  twenty  years  ago  characterized  the  relief 
societies  and  the  associations  for  improving  the  con- 
dition of  the  poor  have  been  entirely  shaken  off, 
and  their  administration  is  now  characterized  by 
energy  and  a  progressive  spirit. 

In  general,  however,  during  the  past  quarter  of  a 
century,  it  is  the  charity  organization  societies  that 
have  most  strenuously  advocated  and  most  consist- 
ently practiced  the  principles  of  organized  charity. 
These  societies  are  themselves  not  exempt  from  the 
danger  of  demoralization.  They  are  liable  to  pre- 
cisely the  same  danger  as  relief  societies,  associa- 
tions for  improving  the  condition  of  the  poor,  and 
individual  citizens  who  desire  to  be  charitable.  In- 


lrThe  Uses  and  Limitations  of  Material  Relief:    Frank 
Tucker.    The  Charities  Review  for  August,  1900. 


54  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

vestigation  may  become  with  them  as  with  others  a 
perfunctory  and  meaningless  thing.  For  co-opera- 
tion in  its  proper  sense  there  may  be  substituted  an 
easy  acquiescence  in  suggestions  made  by  other  so- 
cieties or  agencies  whether  they  are  sensible  or  not. 
Relief  for  which  they  are  responsible  may  become 
routine,  inadequate  and  inefficient.  If  the  best  so- 
cieties have  kept  free  to  a  considerable  extent  from 
these  dangers,  and  have  constantly  renewed  the  high 
standards  and  the  intelligent  methods  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  have  characterized  other  movements  for 
the  better  organization  of  charity  as  well  as  their 
own,  this  happy  result  is  due  in  a  very  large  measure 
to  the  single  fact  that  they  have  not  themselves 
directly  disbursed  relief.  As  an  investigating  and 
relief  obtaining  agency,  it  is  constantly  necessary 
for  the  charity  organization  society  to  justify  its 
decisions  to  others  to  secure  their  assent  and  to  win 
their  approval.  As  an  agency  for  promoting  co- 
operation, it  is  necessary  for  the  society  to  appeal 
strongly  and  convincingly  to  all  branches  of  the 
charitable  public.  It  has  little  temptation  to  become 
sentimental  and  its  work  can  be  kept  upon  a  basis 
of  broad  common  sense,  honest  dealing  with  facts 
at  first  hand,  maintaining  a  due  proportion  between 
various  kinds  of  charitable  needs,  and  shunning 
those  forms  of  charitable  activity  which  win  easy 
but  fleeting  popularity.  Even  those  who  are  noti 
attracted  by  the  ideal  of  charity  organization  so«| 
cieties  because  they  do  not  fully  understand  iU 
nevertheless  pay  a  tribute  to  their  insistence  upoflj 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  55 

high  standards,  to  their  thoroughness  of  method  and 
their  uncompromising  refusal  to  applaud  enterprises 
which  are  called  charitable  and  in  which  the  pro- 
moters have  great  faith,  unless  they  are  really  of 
advantage  to  the  poor. 

Of  course  such  a  position  as  this  in  the  community 
is  not  in  the  long  run  an  unenviable  or  even  an  un- 
popular one.  In  some  of  the  older  cities  it  is  no- 
ticeable that  many  who  were  once  hostile  to  the 

I  charity  organization  societies  have  become  cordial, 

5  and  that  attacks  upon  them  have  been  less  frequent ; 
while  in  many  of  the  cities  in  which  societies  have 

I  more  recently  been  formed  they  have  escaped  the 
misunderstandings  and  controversies  which  had 
seemed  inevitable.  The  controversies,  however, 

;  have  not  always  arisen  from  a  misapprehension  of 
the  objects  and  methods  of  the  societies.  Pursuant 
to  their  aim  of  bringing  about  better  organization  of 
the  charitable  work  of  the  community,  they  have 

I  often  encountered  antiquated,  mismanaged  and  in 
some  instances  wholly  dishonest  so-called  charities, 
and  it  has  been  a  part  of  their  duty  to  expose  these 
false  claimants  upon  the  generosity  of  the  public. 
Unfortunately  very  respectable  citizens  who  have 
carelessly  allowed  their  names  to  be  used  in  connec- 
tion with  enterprises  about  which  they  knew  little 
or  nothing  have  sometimes  been  affected  by  these  ex- 
posures, and  while  there  are  instances  in  which  they 
have  immediately  joined  in  the  attempt  to  correct 
abuses  and  punish  serious  offenders,  there  are  other 
instances  in  which  they  have  been  led  by  personal 


56  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

resentment  to  attack  the  agency  which  is  respon- 
sible for  allowing  the  facts  to  be  known,  rather  than 
the  evils  in  question.  Besides  the  enemies  which 
have  arisen  in  this  manner,  there  are  many  excellent 
people  who  are  unable  to  agree  with  the  decision 
reached  by  the  societies  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of 
particular  cases  of  destitution  in  which  they  are  per- 
sonally interested.  They  are  disappointed  that  some 
other  course  has  not  been  followed,  and  they  refuse 
to  credit  the  sincerity  of  the  society  in  its  different 
view,  or  even  neglect  to  ascertain  what  the  divergent 
view  really  is.  In  any  given  case  the  representatives 
of  the  society  may  form  a  mistaken  judgment  and 
the  one  who  feels  that  he  has  a  grievance  against 
the  society  may  be  entirely  in  the  right  as  to  the 
course  which  should  have  been  taken.  It  is,  how- 
ever, probable  that  the  number  of  persons  who  from 
disappointment  or  resentment  at  the  action  taken, 
or  the  failure  to  act,  may  finally  become  consider- 
ably greater  than  the  number  of  mistakes  made  by 
the  society  would  warrant,  and  a  few  discontented 
citizens  may  easily  establish  a  general  public  opinion 
unfavorable  to  the  methods  and  practice  of  the  so- 
ciety. All  this  is  to  be  obviated  only  by  tact  in  ex- 
plaining the  reasons  for  the  particular  decision 
made,  and  a  perfect  readiness  to  discuss  the  ques- 
tions involved  with  any  who  have  a  legitimate  in- 
terest in  them.  Coupled  with  this,  however,  there 
should  be,  and  to  an  increasing  extent  there  is  in 
fact,  a  persistent  and  reiterated  emphasis  upon  the 
constructive  and  positive  sides  of  the  work  of  the 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  57 

charity  organization  societies,  and  repeated  dem- 
onstration of  the  actual  value  of  the  results  obtained 
in  individual  instances. 

Attention  may  be  called  finally  to  a  very  important 
distinction  between  the  charity  organization  so- 
cieties and  other  organized  relief  agencies,  and  in 
this  connection  the  experience  of  the  Boston  Provi- 
dent Association,  the  New  York  Association  for 
Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  and  the 
Chicago  Relief  and  Aid  Society  in  the  matter  of 
volunteer  visitors  is  of  interest.  In  each  case  volun- 
teer visitors  were  formerly  employed,  and  in  each 
case  as  a  means  of  promoting  efficiency  in  the  dis- 
bursement of  relief  such  volunteer  service  was  dis- 
continued. The  charity  organization  societies, 
however,  have  increased  rather  than  diminished  the 
proportion  of  their  work  that  is  done  by  unpaid  vol- 
unteer workers.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  success- 
ful charity  organization  society  working  on  any 
other  plan.  This  is  precisely  because  their  object  is 
the  organization  of  charity,  in  other  words  the  edu- 
cation and  training  of  the  charitably  disposed  indi- 
viduals, the  men  and  women  who  are  willing  to  give 
either  time  or  money,  or  both,  for  the  relief  of  dis- 
tress. 

The  charity  organization  society  undertakes  a 
more  difficult  task  than  the  direct  relief  of  distress. 
It  is  to  insure  that  the  limited  amount  of  charitable 
work  which  any  one  society  may  perform  shall  be 
done  in  such  a  way  as  to  train  the  volunteer  who 
co-operates  in  doing  it.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 


58  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

that  the  chief  aim  of  the  charity  organization  so- 
ciety is  to  improve  the  charitable  method  of  the  gen- 
eral public.  Its  aim  is  to  help  the  poor,  but  to  do 
this  by  persuasive  teaching,  and,  so  far  as  public 
opinion  can  accomplish  the  result,  by  compelling  the 
pastor,  the  church  worker,  the  business  and  profes- 
sional man,  the  volunteer  of  every  description,  to 
help  the  poor  in  wiser  and  more  effective  ways. 
This  is  fundamentally  for  the  sake  of  the  poor  and 
not  for  the  sake  of  adding  to  the  comfort  or  well- 
being  of  the  well-to-do.  It  does  the  latter  inciden- 
tally by  making  their  charitable  donations  accom- 
plish more  real  good  and  adding  the  satisfaction 
which  always  accompanies  work  intelligently  per- 
formed. The  distinction  made  by  Mr.  Edward 
Frothingham  is,  therefore  entirely  sound.1  /  A  provi- 
dent association  whose  sole  aim  is  to  help  the  poor 
directly  should  rely  upon  professional  agents.  An 
associated  charities  whose  chief  aim  is  educational 
must  have  its  corps  of  friendly  visitors  2  and  must 
win  the  co-operation  of  those  who  do  not  in  any 
formal  way  enrol  themselves  as  workers  of  the  so- 
ciety. Whether  it  does  this  or  not  is  one  of  the  tests 
of  its  success.  There  are  many  different  kinds  of 
work  which  friendly  visitors  may  do  in  all  of  which 
the  training  that  is  desired  may  be  secured. 

What  has  been  said  will  indicate  the  natural  divis- 


'"One  of  Boston's  Great  Charities,"  in  the  Prospect 
Union  Review  for  March  6,  1895. 

'What  is  Charity  Organization?  Miss  Mary  E.  Rich- 
mond. The  Charities  Review  for  January,  1900,  p.  496. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  59 

ion  of  work  between  an  association  for  improving 
the  condition  of  the  poor  and  a  charity  organiza- 
tion society  if  both  exist  in  the  same  city.  To  the 
former  will  naturally  belong  the  relief  of  the  neces- 
sities of  the  poor  so  far  as  is  consistent  with  the 
improvement  of  their  condition,  and  within  its  scope 
will  also  lie  numerous  forms  of  beneficent  activity, 
determined  by  the  social  needs  of  the  time,  and  lim- 
ited only  by  the  financial  resources  entrusted  to  the 
association  by  the  community  and  by  the  capacity 
for  management  shown  by  those  who  direct  its 
policy.  Such  an  association  may  properly  investi- 
gate its  own  applications  for  relief,  or  may  adopt 
some  method  of  co-operation  with  the  clfarity  or- 
ganization society  by  which  the  latter  will  do  this 
work.  The  charity  organization  society,  however, 
should  seek  no  monopoly  of  investigations,  and  if 
the  decision  as  to  treatment  rests  upon  the  associa- 
tion for  improving  the  condition  of  the  poor  there 
are  distinct  advantages  in  having  its  investigations 
made  by  its  own  agents.  The  task  of  the  charity 
organization  society  will  be  that  of  maintaining; 
a  registration  bureau,  investigating  all  applications 
for  assistance  made  at  its  office  or  referred  to  it  by 
others,  forming  a  plan  for  the  adequate  treatment 
of  each  case,  securing  the  necessary  co-operation, 
'  moral,  educational  and  financial,  in  carrying  this 
plan  into  operation,  organizing  relief  in  individual 
cases  when  relief  should  come  from  various  sources 
personal  to  the  applicant  or  otherwise,  and  finally  by 
the  employment  of  the  spare  hours  of  all  who  -are 


60  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

willing  to  do  any  amount  of  charitable  work,  grad- 
ually improving  the  character  of  all  charitable  work 
done  in  the  community.  This  is  more  difficult  and 
in  many  instances  far  more  discouraging  work  than 
that  of  disbursing  relief.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
a  wise  worker  has  said  that  "  charity  organization 
is  not  a  work  to  which  any  man  should  put  his  hand 
unless  he  is  prepared  to  give  to  it  some  measure 
of  devotion."  It  is  hard  work,  requiring  time  and 
thought  and  patience  and  judgment.  It  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  work,  and  the  merit  of  the  charity 
organization  societies  is  that  they  have  not  merely 
talked  about  it  but  have  provided  a  practical  and 
definite  plan  by  which  it  can  be,  and  which  in  a 
large  number  of  communities  has  been  in  a  very 
notable  degree  performed. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  to  describe  the  form  of 
government  and  of  organization  prevailing  in  the 
various  societies,1  but  there  is  one  feature  character- 
istic of  all  except  the  smaller  societies.  This  is  the 
district  committee,  through  which  the  constructive 
work  of  the  society  on  behalf  of  needy  families  is 
done.  In  the  smaller  societies  where  it  is  not 
necessary  to  divide  the  territory  to  be  covered  into 
districts  there  is  nevertheless  usually  a  committee 
whose  functions  are  identical  with  the  district  com- 
mittee of  the  larger  societies.  The  functions  of  the 
district  committee  cannot  be  better  described  than 
in  the  following  paragraphs  from  the  pen  of  Mrs. 

*See   Appendix   I   for   model  constitution   of  a   charity 
organization  society. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  6 1 

Charles  Russell  Lowell  upon  whose  initiative  the 
New  York  society  was  founded  and  who  has  con- 
tributed more  to  the  theory  and  to  the  practice  of 
organized  charity  than  any  one  else  in  America. 

"  The  reason  for  the  formation  of  '  district  com- 
mittees '  is  to  arouse  a  local  interest  in  the  work, 
and  to  break  up  the  great  city  into  what  Dr.  Chal- 
mers calls  '  manageable  portions  of  the  civic  terri- 
tory ',  because  these  smaller  divTsions  appeal  more 
strongly  to  the  imagination  of  the  worker  than  the 
whole  can  possibly  do.  To  quote  Dr.  Chalmers 
again :  '  There  is  a  very  great  difference  in  respect 
to  its  practical  influence  between  a  task  that  is  in- 
definite and  a  task  that  is  clearly  seen  to  be  over- 
takable.  The  one  has  the  effect  to  paralyze,  the 
other  to  quicken  exertion. 

"  The  first  condition  of  an  ideal  district  commit- 
tee is,  then,  that  it  should  have  a  domain  not  too 
large  in  which  to  work.  Further,  that  it  should 
be  composed  of  residents  in  that  domain  who  unite 
together  to  take  charge  of  its  public  interest  and  to 
help  such  poor  persons  as  are  found,  after  inquiry, 
to  need  help.  Its  special  functions  are,  to  destroy 
pauperism  within  the  boundaries  of  the  district, 
and  also  to  concern  itself  with  all  measures  that 
will  make  the  life  of  persons,  not  paupers,  but  suf- 
fering from  poverty,  more  bearable. 

"  In  dealing  with  individual  cases  of  pauperism 
and  of  poverty  the  main  characteristic  of  its  work 
is  that  it  endeavors  to  find  adequate  relief  for  each 


62  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

person — that  is,  it  seeks  to  cure  and  not  to  alleviate 
distress  that  appeals  to  it  for  aid,  and  as  almost 
all  distress  of  the  kind  that  does  appeal  to  strangers 
for  aid  is  of  a  kind  that  has  its  cause  in  some  defect 
of  character,  the  building  up  of  character  is  (or 
ought  to  be)  one  of  the  first  objects  of  a  district 
committee  in  all  its  relations  with  individuals.  It 
is  because  this  character-building  is  the  distinctive 
feature  of  the  committee's  dealings  with  individuals 
that  what  are  called  '  Friendly  Visitors  '  are  of  such 
tremendous  importance,  for  it  is  only  individuals 
who  can  influence  individuals.  There  cannot  be  the 
slightest  taint  of  mechanism  or  officialism  in  this 
work — and  for  every  miserable,  weak,  hopeless  per- 
son or  family  there  ought  to  be  a  helping,  strong, 
wise  person  to  undertake  their  education. 

"  The  object  of  the  district  committee  is  to  make 
itself  a  meeting  place  for  all  workers  from  churches 
and  charitable  societies  in  its  district  in  order  that 
co-operation  among  them  may  be  a  living  reality. 
There  are  weekly  meetings  to  consider  the  best  way 
of  helping  those  needing  help,  and  at  these  the 
'  Friendly  Visitors '  are  advised  and  it  is  decided 
where  and  from  whom  any  '  temporary  relief ' 
needed  in  each  individual  case  is  to  be  obtained, 
whether  from  a  society,^rom  an  individual,  or  from 
the  employers  and  relations  of  the  person  in  distress, 
for  the  district  committee  has  no  relief  funds  of  its 
own,  and  is  forbidden  to  have  them.1 

1  This  is  the  rule  of  the  New  York  and  Baltimore  Charity 
Organization  Societies  and  of  the  Boston  Associated  Chari- 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  63 

"  In  order  to  accomplish  its  objects  the  district 
committee  must  '  point  to  higher  paths  and  lead  the 
way  '  in  charity,  and  constantly  seek  to  influence 
more  people  to  work  with  it.  In  all  parts  of  all 
cities  in  these  modern  days  there  are  plenty  of  peo- 
ple who  are  trying  to  do  good  to  the  poor,  mem- 
bers of  churches  or  societies  of  various  kinds,  who 
are  full  of  sympathy  with  suffering  and  who  desire 
to  relieve  the  sufferers.  Unfortunately,  however, 
they  are  often  too  ignorant  to  know  that  they  are  ig- 
norant— they  think  that  what  appears  on  the  surface 
is  all  that  exists,  and  it  seems  to  them  sheer  folly 
and  hard-heartedness  for  any  one  to  say  that  there 
is  any  harm  or  any  danger  of  harm  in  giving  food 
to  people  who  say  they  are  hungry,  in  supplying 
clothes  to  children  who  come  begging  to  them  in 
scanty  garments,  in  giving  money  to  women  with 
wailing  babies  in  their  arms.  They  know  nothing, 
it  would  seem,  of  human  nature,  or  of  experience, 
and  they  cannot  imagine  that  children  should  be 
sent  out  naked  and  hungry  into  the  cold  streets  for 
the  purpose  of  gathering  in  money  from  the  pity  of 
the  passers-by,  and  that  this  very  giving  is  the  cause 
of  the  misery  the  giving  vainly  tries  to  cure,  and  that 
the  way  to  cure  is  much  more  difficult.  Therefore  it 
is  the  office  of  the  charity  organization  society  and 
of  its  district  committees  to  instruct  all  such  well- 
meaning  persons,  who  long  to  do  good,  but  do  not 
know  how,  to  beg  and  beseech  them  to  come  together 

ties.    The  London  Society  also  obtains  relief  on  the  "case- 
by-case"  plan. 


64  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

and  listen  to  facts,  and  learn  how  to  do  the  work 
they  have  undertaken.  There  is  plenty  of  experi- 
ence to  appeal  to.  Every  one,  all  over  the  civilized 
world,  who  has  given  earnest  thought  and  effort  to 
the  study  of  how  to  help  poor  people,  how  to  cure 
pauperism,  and  how  to  lift  the  degraded  out  of  their 
degradation  is  absolutely  agreed  as  to  methods. 

"  It  is  a  most  encouraging  and  inspiring  fact  that 
there  is  no  diversity  of  opinion  among  those  who 
have  experience  and  who  have  accepted  their  experi- 
ence with  open  minds.  The  universal  conclusion  is 
that  the  only  way  to  lift  the  body  is  to  lift  the  soul 
first ;  '  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you/  "  * 

The  advantages  of  organization  in  charitable  work 
are  as  apparent  in  the  smaller  cities  and  towns  as  in 
large  cities.  Some  of  the  most  progressive  and 
useful  societies  in  America  are  to  be  found  in  cities 
with  a  population  of  less  than  50,000.  Glasgow  in 
Scotland  and  Elberfeld  in  Germany  while  still  cities 
of  very  moderate  size  became  pioneers  in  important 
reform  movements.  There  is  much  to  be  said  in 
support  of  the  proposition  that  a  small  city  offers  the 
best  opportunity  for  testing  new  ideas,  and  realiz- 
ing an  approach  to  ideal  social  conditions.  Whether 
this  be  so  or  not,  certainly  no  one  need  hesitate  to 


1  Report  of  the  Committee  on  District  Work.  Seven- 
teenth Annual  Report  of  the  New  York  Charity  Organiza' 
tion  Society,  pp.  32-34,  New  York :  1899. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  65 

apply  the  principles  of  organized  charity  to  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  may  reside,  whether  it  be  urban, 
suburban,  or  rural.  In  an  appendix  to  this  volume 
the  draft  of  a  suggested  constitution  is  given  for  a 
society  such  as  should  be  formed  in  every  town  and 
city.  If  greater  informality  is  desired  the  plan  may 
be  modified  by  the  omission  of  such  features  as  are 
not  considered  applicable ;  but  each  section  should 
be  considered  with  due  care  since  difficulties  may 
be  averted  by  reaching  a  tentative  decision  in  ad- 
vance upon  all  such  questions,  subject  of  course  to 
modification  in  the  light  of  experience. 


VI.  VOLUNTEER  SERVICE 

IN  discussing  the  place  of  volunteer  service  "in  the 
practice  of  charity,  we  may  profitably  begin  by  con- 
sidering what  needs  are  really  greatest  in  the  de- 
pendent members  of  society,  that  we  may  thus  form 
some  idea  of  the  relative  social  values  of  the  various 
forces  at  work  for  their  benefit. 

Is  the  problem  of  destitution  chiefly  economic,  or 
religious,  or  social?  If  it  is  chiefly  economic  what 
is  its  exact  character  as  an  economic  problem,  and 
what  part,  if  any,  may  social  and  religious  influences 
play  in  its  solution?  *  There  are  those  who  assert 
roundly  that  the  sole  need  of  the  poor  is  that  the 
well-to-do  should  get  off  their  backs  and  give  them  a 
chance.  •  There  is  no  need  to  be  frightened  at,  or 
to  criticize  this  position  merely  because  it  is  radical. 
It  does  not  matter  how  radical  a  remedy  is  so  that 
it  is  sound.  A  remedy  that  is  radical,  i.  e.,  one  which 
goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  is  always  to  be  pre- 
ferred. What  is  objectionable  in  this  revolutionary 
doctrine  is  that  it  is  not  sound  or  accurate  as  an 
analysis  of  the  trouble.  There  are  spots  here  and 
there  in  which  those  who  have  great  privileges  es- 
cape a  just  accounting  for  them,  to  the  injury  of  the 
poor  and  of  the  community  as  a  whole,  but  this  is 

66 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  67 

no  explanation  of  pauperism  or  poverty,  and  throws 
very  little  light  indeed  upon  the  individual  failures 
and  the  unfortunate  accidents  which  give  to  the 
charitable  their  gigantic  tasks. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  and  well  on  into  our 
own,  there  was  a  prevailing  school  of  thought  that 
found  all  the  explanation  for  misery  and  social  in- 
equality in  the  oppressive  burden  of  government  and 
its  accompanying  social  institutions.  Take  off  the 
burdens,  was  their  urgent  cry.  Man  by  nature  is 
progressive,  intelligent  and  good.  He  has  been  held 
down.  Remove  all  these  artificial  restrictions.  Let 
human  society  be  left  free  to  work  out  its  own  sal- 
vation, and  all  the  woes  we  deplore  will  silently  dis- 
appear. Laissez  faire,  laissez  passer.  Let  every- 
thing alone,  and  there  will  be  no  trouble.  This,  too, 
is  fallacious  and  in  practice  of  no  value  to  those  who 
care  about  the  outcome. 

The  best  thought  of  those  who  desire  social  re- 
form and  improvement  is  now  crystallizing  in  the 
idea  that  liberty — social  freedom — is  not  a  state  of 
nature,  but  a  positively  created  condition  in  which 
the  most  active  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
munity is  needed  to  destroy  new,  dangerous  growths, 
and  to  keep  the  field  constantly  clear  for  the  natural 
and  fruitful  plants  of  enterprise,  industry  and  honor- 
able toil. ' 

The  economists  have  led  us  to  expect  much  from 
mechanical  invention,  progress  in  the  arts,  improve- 
ments in  production,  cheapening  of  gobds,  cheapen- 
ing of  transportation — enabling  the  things  we  need 


68  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

to  be  carried  from  a  distance  and  ourselves  to  live  at 
a  distance  from  our  work,  or  to  change  our  loca- 
tion when  our  work  requires  it.  It  is  well  not  to 
undervalue  the  contribution  to  human  welfare  made 
by  industrial  progress.  Such  progress  has  helped 
the  poor  more  than  the  rich,  and  the  great  body  of 
the  people  who  are  neither  rich  nor  poor,  but  who 
live  on  weekly  wages,  more  than  either. 

But  it  would  seem  that  a  point  has  been  reached 
at  which  increased  prosperity  and  welfare  will  in  the 
future  rest  largely  upon  changes  in  another  field.  It 
is  not  the  amount  of  wealth  we  produce  but  the 
use  we  make  of  it  that  is  of  the  greatest  consequence. 
It  is  our  standard  of  living,  rather  than  our  mental  or 
muscular  power,  that  determines  whether  or  not  we 
are  to  be  prosperous.  It  is  not  the  factorv  that  is  of 
the  very  greatest  importance  but  the  home.  It  is 
not  our  productive  efficiency  but  our  intelligence  as 
consumers  that  decides  for  us  whether  we  shall  live 
and  prosper,  or  lose  ground  and  perish. 

If  a  community  suddenly  comes  into  new  posses- 
sions, gets  control  of  gold  mines,  builds  a  railroad, 
invents  a  new  machine,  or  moves  into  more  fertile 
territory,  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  it  will  be 
better  off  as  a  result.  Whether  it  will  or  not  de- 
pends upon  whether  its  standard  of  living  is  high 
and  improving  or  low  and  stationary.  The  new 
wealth  may  mean  temptation,  debauchery  and  loss  of 
vitality,  and  so  loss  of  real  wealth ;  or  it  may  mean 
better  schools,  more  libraries,  more  beautiful  homes, 
more  comforts — an  increase  of  real  wealth. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  69 

A  similar  diversity  of  experience  may  befall  dif- 
ferent families  in  the  same  community.  Those 
families  which  have  a  high  standard  will  profit  by 
increased  opportunities,  while  those  who  have  not 
will  find  that  they  have  lost  ground  and  that  the  gulf 
between  themselves  and  their  more  fortunate  neigh- 
bors is  wider  than  ever. 

There  are  then  two  distinct  ways  in  which  we 
may  increase  prosperity.  We  may  make  goods 
more  cheaply  by  improving  our  productive  processes, 
or  we  may  make  better  use  of  what  we  have  pro- 
duced, which  will  involve  our  making  an  ever  better 
selection  among  the  things  which  we  are  able  to  buy. 
Speaking  generally  and  with  many  reservations  and 
exceptions  the  first  is  man's  work  the  second  is  wo- 
man's work.  The  mill,  the  factory,  the  railway,  the 
mine  and  the  farm  are  man's  domain.  But  the 
home,  where  all  the  fruits  of  human  toil  are  at  last 
enjoyed,  is  woman's  realm.  The  great  opportun- 
ities for  advance  and  improvement  in  the  immediate 
future  are  in  the  field  of  wealth  consumption,  or  use, 
rather  than  in  the  rougher  and  better  known  field  of 
work  and  industry.  What  shall  we  eat,  how  shall 
we  select  and  prepare  it?  What  shall  we  wear? 
With  what  furniture  and  decorations  shall  we  sur- 
round ourselves  ?  '  Shall  we  live  in  flats  or  houses — 
in  the  center  of  the  city  or  in  the  suburbs? 
Health,  sanitation  and  the  water  supply,  kinder- 
gartens,  schools,  books,  newspapers,  music,  travel, 
these  are,  strictly  speaking,  the  important  matters, 
rather  than  wages,  strikes,  stocks,  franchises, 


70  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

money,  foreign  possessions — important  as  these  also 
arej 

If  this  is  so  for  the  community  as  a  whole,  it  is 
pre-eminently  true  of  our  poorest  brethren.     By  so 
long  a  route — but  no  longer  than  was  necessary  to^ 
make  the  point  clear — we  come  back  to  our  peculiar 
problem.     We  labor  for  the  real  good,  the  permanent 
and  lasting  good  of  those  who  falter  in  life's  keen" 
struggle  and  fall  behind.     What  then  shall  we  doJ 
for  them?     Find  work,  has  perhaps  been  the  most  < 
confident  and  most  persistent  answer.     Give  relief 
in  work,  not  in  alms.     Excellent  so  far  as  it  goes, 
but  the  other  half  of  a  really  radical  answer  is: 
Help  them  to  create  better  home  environment.     On 
this  side  lies  the  difficulty  in  the  great  number  of 
cases. 

Whittier's  description  of  a  home  among  the  New 
Hampshire  hills  may  be  recalled.  Although  he 
sings  of  a  country  mountain  home  the  city  also  may' 
appropriate  his  lines,  for  a  girl  from  the  town  was 
its  creator: 

On  either  hand  I  saw  the  signs 

Of  fancy  and  of  shrewdness, 
Where  taste  had  wound  its  arms  of  vines 

Round  thrift's  uncomely  rudeness. 

Taste  and  thrift  are  the  essentials  of  a  home 
whether  in  a  compact  city  flat  or  on  the  wind-swept, 
sunlit  hillside. 

How  shall  they  be  developed  where  they  are  not? 
•  There  is  but  one  way: — by  the  all-compelling  and 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  71 

God-given  power  of  personal  friendship.  In  the 
schools  we  may  teach  something  of  color  and  form 
and  neatness,  but  there  is  need  for  an  influence  that 
will  reach  adults  also.  It  is  a  deceptive  philosophy 
that  turns  the  back  upon  parents  as  hopeless  and  pro- 
poses to  save  the  children.  We  can  not  save  chil- 
dren separately.  We  must  reach  and  save  the  family 
as  a  whole,  and  we  must  do  what  we  do  in  undis- 
guised and  unaffected  friendship  for  the  family  as  a 
whole. 

The  friendly  visitor,  the  visiting  friend,  whether 
she  have  any  technical  designation  or  not,  and 
whether  she  be  formally  enrolled  anywhere  as  a  part 
of  a  corps  of  friendly  visitors  or  not,  is  unquestion- 
ably the  most  essential  element  in  social  amelioration. 
Let  Whittier  again  in  the  same  poem  from  which  we 
have  quoted,  describe  her: 

\  Flowers  spring  to  blossom  where  she  walks 

The  careful  ways  of  duty; 
Our  hard,  stiff  lines  of  life  with  her 
Are  flowing  curves  of  beauty. 

Our  homes  are  cheerier  for  her  sake, 
Our  door  yard  brighter  blooming, 

And  all  about  the  social  air 
Is  sweeter  for  her  coming. 

Unspoken  homilies  of  peace 

Her  daily  life  is  preaching; 
The  still  refreshment  of  the  dew 

Is  her  unconscious  teaching. 


72  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

And  never  tenderer  hand  than  hers 

Unknits  the  brow  of  ailing; 
Her  garments  to  the  sick  man's  ear 

Have  music  in  their  trailing. 

Her  presence  lends  its  warmth  and  health 

To  all  who  come  before  it. 
If  woman  lost  us  Eden,  such 

As  she  alone  restore  it. 

Friendship  in  the  sense  in  which  it  has  social  value, 
is  an  outgoing  affection,  wholly  and  entirely  disin- 
terested. It  consists,  as  Henry  Clay  Trumbull 
says,1  in  loving  rather  than  being  loved;  in  being 
a  friend  rather  than  in  having  a  friend;  in  giving 
one's  affection  unselfishly  and  unswervingly  to  an- 
other— not  in  being  the  object  of  another's  affection. 
Where  there  is  such  friendship,  coupled  with  an  in- 
telligent consideration  of  what  the  welfare  of  the 
family  which  one  befriends  most  requires,  there  is 
the  beginning  of  hope  and  prosperity.  It  becomes 
possible  to  give  good  advice  and  to  get  it  accepted. 
There  is  a  Sanscrit  proverb : 

*  The  words  which  from  a  stranger's  lips  offend 
Are  honey  sweet  if  spoken  by  a  friend. 
As  when  the  smoke  of  common  wood  we  spurn, 
But  call   it  perfume   sweet   with   fragrant  aloes 
burn. 


1  Friendship  The  Master  Passion.    Philadelphia,  1894. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  73 

We  are  speaking  of  the  plain,  common  sense  prac- 
tical value  of  friendship,  not  of  some  ethereal  and 
impossible  quality.  As  Emerson  says:1  1"  I  do 
not  wish  to  treat  friendships  daintily,  but  with 
roughest  courage.  When  they  are  real  they  are  not 
glass  threads  or  frost  work,  but  the  solidest  things 
we  know.'J 

Such  friendship  as  this,  that  will  seize  upon  a 
family  when  an  opportunity  offers,  either  because 
the  children  are  in  one's  kindergarten,  or  because 
the  father  or  mother  has  appealed  for  help,  and  so 
given  an  opening,  or  because  one  has  business  or 
social  or  religious  relations  that  justify  it — friend- 
ship that  persists  through  discouragement — is  the 
strongest  social  agency  at  work  in  society.  It  may 
spring  from  a  social  settlement  or  a  church,  or  a 
business  house,  but  also  from  any  home  in  which 
there  is  a  man,  woman  or  child  capable  of  friend- 
ship. 

It  is  sometimes  said  by  those  who  are  not  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  system  of  friendly  visiting  as  a 
feature  of  organized  charity  that  such  relations  as 
these  cannot  be  deliberately  inaugurated,  but  can  only 
arise  when  there  is  a  natural  social  or  industrial  tie. 
It  is  pointed  out  that  an  employer  may,  under  favor- 
able circumstances,  become  acquainted  in  this  way 
with  the  families  of  his  employees  and  may  exercise 
a  beneficial  influence  over  them.  Women  who  em- 
ploy a  laundress  or  seamstress  may,  it  is  alleged, 


1  Essay  on  Friendship. 


74  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

legitimately  interest  themselves  in  the  domestic  af- 
fairs of  those  with  whom  they  thus  have  earlier  re- 
lations,4 but  it  is  not  conceivable  that  such  relations 
should  be  deliberately  created  with  strangers.  The 
answer  to  this  criticism  is  that  the  facts  do  not 
justify  it.  Hundreds  of  instances  may  be  cited  in 
which  a  friendly  visitor  whose  introduction  came 
through  a  charitable  interest  has  stood  loyally  by 
the  family  or  individual  whom  he  has  befriended 
through  many  years  of  intimate  and  mutually  profit- 
able acquaintance.  It  is  by  no  means  true  that 
friendships  are  possible  only  among  those  of  pre- 
cisely the  same  walks  in  life.  Hear  Emerson  again : 

"  I  much  prefer  the  company  of  plow  boys  and 
tin  peddlers  to  the  silken  and  perfumed  amity  which 
celebrates  its  days  of  encounter  by  frivolous  dis- 
play, by  rides  in  a  curricle  and  dinners  at  the  best 
taverns.  The  end  of  friendship  is  a  commerce  more 
strict  and  homely  than  any  of  which  we  have  ex- 
perience. It  is  for  aid  and  comfort  through  all  the 
relations  and  passages  of  life  and  death.  It  is  fit 
for  serene  days  and  graceful  gifts  and  country  ram- 
bles, but  also  for  rough  roads  and  hard  fare,  ship- 
wreck, poverty  and  persecution.  We  are  to  dignify 
to  each  other  the  daily  needs  and  offices  of  man's 
life  and  embellish  it  by  courage,  wisdom  and  unity. 
It  should  never  fall  into  something  usual  and  settled, 
but  should  be  alert  and  inventive  and  add  rhyme  and 
reason  to  what  was  drudgery,"  x 

*  Essay  on  Friendship. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  75 

The  relation  must  be  sane,  sensible  and  unpreten- 
tious. It  must  take  account  of  such  homely  facts 
as  that  which  came  from  a  butcher,  whose  trade  is 
almost  entirely  among  weekly  wage-earners,  that  he 
had  noticed  a  regular  cycle  among  them,  com- 
pleted each  time  within  the  week.  On  Saturday 
night  and  Sunday  and  Monday  the  expensive  cuts 
that  were  .to  be  had  were  wanted  by  everybody. 
Their  ideas  kept  going  down  steadily  during  the 
week,  until  on  Thursday  and  Friday  the  house- 
keepers, whose  stock  of  money  was  near  exhaus- 
tion, satisfied  themselves  with  anything  that  would 
make  up  into  a  stew.  This  is  not  so  extreme  as 
the  case  of  a  starving  family  that  was  relieved 
during  a  snowstorm  with  the  munificent  cash  sum 
of  four  dollars,  whereupon  they  spent  one  dollar  for 
food,  another  for  drink  and  the  remaining  two  dol- 
lars, as  the  father  said,  in  buying  "  a  pup  for  de  kids 
to  play  wid."  This  illustrates  in  a  crude  but  con- 
crete way  what  the  task  is  that  lies  before  the  candi- 
date for  a  friend's  laurels. 

The  friendly  visitor  who  has  had  experience  and 
training  is  of  course  much  more  useful  than  one  who 
has  no  capital  except  charitable  interest  and  zeal  for 
personal  service.  The  district  committee  or  the 
visitors'  conference  of  a  charity  organization  so- 
ciety or  associated  charities  is  the  best  of  all  places 
to  gain  the  training  necessary  to  useful  service.  In 
such  a  conference  the  inexperienced  may  seek  ad- 
vice and  all  who  are  puzzled  may  present  their  dif- 
ficulties for  the  counsel  of  their  associates.  The  col- 


7  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

lective  wisdom  of  even  a  small  group  of  earnest 
workers  is  likely  to  exceed  that  of  any  of  its  individ- 
ual members.  This  is  more  certain  to  be  true  when, 
as  usually  happens,  the  visitors  approach  their  work 
from  somewhat  different  points  of  view  and  have 
had  varied  experiences.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
volunteer  charity  workers  should  always  put  them- 
selves under  the  guidance  and  do  their  work  in  sub- 
ordination to  a  professionally  trained  and  experi- 
enced expert.  This,  however,  is  to  reverse  the  nat- 
ural order.  The  professional  expert  should  rather 
be  the  agent  of  the  group  of  volunteer  workers,  sup- 
plementing their  efforts,  gaining  information  which 
it  may  be  impossible  for  them  to  secure,  but  not 
necessarily  directing  or  supervising  their  activities. 
The  spirit  of  charity  is  inconsistent  with  a  practice 
by  which  paid  agents  usurp  the  place  of  the  chari- 
table individual.  It  is  not  an  unreasonable  test  of  the 
success  of  the  agent  whether  he  increases  or  dimin- 
ishes the  amount  of  fruitful  volunteer  work  done  in 
the  community. 

Organized  schemes  of  relief,  investigation,  and 
interchange  of  information  are  all  excellent  in  their 
place  but  they  do  not  perform  the  educational  work 
which  belongs  to  the  individual  worker  and  which 
will  come  from  the  results  of  his  effort  or  not  at  all. 

If  this  seems  discouraging  or  difficult  there  is  the 
solid  fact  to  stand  upon  that  the  work  must  be  done 
and  that  there  is  no  short  cut  to  it.  We  can  not 
substitute  any  big  social  scheme  for  the  necessary 
educational  work  which  a  higher  standard  requires. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  77 

If  it  were  a  question  of  production  we  might  invent 
a  machine  for  it,  but  since  it  is  a  question  of  con- 
sumption, it  involves  careful  training  and  the  open- 
ing of  the  eyes  to  a  thousand  little  things,  one  after 
another.  1  It  is  a  problem  of  gradually  substituting 
thrift,  taste,  a  good  use  of  income  for  carelessness, 
shiftlessness  and  ignorance.  Not  the  lack  of  in- 
come, but  the  foolish  use  of  income  is  the  trouble. 
It  is  true  that  there  are  places  where  the  trouble  is 
lack  of  income,  that  there  are  exceptional  families 
in  which  there  is  not  sufficient  wage-earning  power, 
and  that  the  income  of  such  families  must  be  sup- 
plemented, but  that  is  not  the  trouble  with  any  very 
large  proportion  of  our  very  poor.  Trace  it  back  to 
its  source  in  the  years  before  the  crisis  which  makes 
the  family  actually  dependent  has  come,  and  we  shall 
find  it  in  the  failure  to  make  sensible  use  of  the 
income  which  was  enjoyed, — a  failure  to  hold  the 
balances  between  the  actual  needs  of  the  present  and 
the  probable  needs  of  the  future,  between  the  need 
of  the  children  for  clothes  and  their  need  of  indus- 
trial training,  between  the  demands  of  the  appetite 
and  the  demands  of  the  higher  nature. 

The  errors  of  the  poor  as  a  class  are  not  more 
serious  in  these  respects  than  those  of  the  rich.  It 
is  simply  that  the  consequences  are  more  serious. 
The  interesting  discovery  has  been  made  that  the 
poorest  classes  in  London  spend  relatively  more  of 
their  income  for  reading  matter  than  do  the  wealthy 
classes,  and  also  that  they  spend  more  in  charitable 
relief.  A  true  friend  of  a  wealthy  family  will  work 


78  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

as  zealously  to  give  them  a  higher  standard  as  a 
friend  of  the  poor  will  labor  for  the  same  end  with 
them. 

The  social  value  of  such  friendship  as  we  have 
been  trying  to  describe  lies  in  the  fact  that  one  who 
knows  and  has  helped  in  such  ways  one  or  more  in- 
dividual families  is  of  some  real  social  service  when 
questions  arise  in  which  the  welfare  of  the  poor  is  at 
stake.  He  can  speak  intelligently,  because  he  knows 
where  the  real  difficulties  lie.  Inspection  of  food, 
protection  of  life  and  decency  by  good  building  laws, 
the  cleaning  of  the  streets,  protection  from  disease, 
the  building  of  school  houses,  the  opening  of  parks 
and  playgrounds — all  these  have  a  new  significance 
for  him  who,  in  his  own  family  and  in  the  families 
of  his  personal  friends,  has  discovered  by  an  attempt 
to  improve  their  habits  of  life  what  obstacles  are  en- 
countered in  existing  conditions.  One  man  who 
has  been  made  indignant  by  the  neglect  of  the  com- 
munity to  provide  protection  for  the  little  ones  of 
a  family  which  he  has  befriended  may  be  worth  more 
to  the  community  than  ten  abstract  philanthropists. 
One  word  may  be  added  as  to  the  effect  upon  those 
who  share  such  friendships  in  their  relations  to  each 
other.  Co-operation  is  another  name  for  this  mutual 
relation.  The  Memorabilia  of  Xenophon  represent 
Socrates  as  making  this  statement : 

The  sayings  of  the  wise  men  of  old  we  unroll  and 
con  together,  culling  out  what  good  we  may,  but 
counting  it  the  great  gain  if  meantime  we  grow  dear 
— one  to  another. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  79 

There  is  an  advantage  of  a  similar  sort  in  com- 
mon social  aims  and  in  common  work  for  the  un- 
fortunate. We  accomplish  what  good  we  may,  but 
we  count  it  also  a  great  gain  that  meantime  we  grow 
dear  one  to  another.  The  spirit  of  co-operation  is 
an  active  spirit.  It  implies  that  both  of  those  who 
share  it  are  actively  at  work.  It  is  difficult  to  co- 
operate with  an  inanimate,  unprogressive  concern. 
It  is  a  pleasure  to  associate  with  those  who  are  doing 
something.  Earnest,  intelligent,  well-directed  ac- 
tivity for  some  desirable  social  end,  such  as  the 
rescue  of  children,  the  preservation  of  the  family, 
the  reformation  of  the  wayward,  is  the  first  essen- 
tial of  co-operation. 

There  must  also  be  a  capacity  for  taking  a  genuine 
interest  in  work  in  which  one  can  not,  for  one  reason 
or  another,  personally  engage.  Here,  again,  an  edu- 
cational analogy  may  help  us.  A  university- 
trained  specialist  may  become  so  absorbed  in  his  own 
specialty  that  he  knows  and  cares  about  little  be- 
side, but  the  idea  of  the  American  college  is  that 
its  graduate,  if  he  become  a  specialist,  shall  have  an 
outlook  broad  enough  to  enable  him  to  sympathize 
in  the  fullest  measure  with  the  achievements  of  men 
of  science  in  every  other  field.  An  eminent  natural- 
ist goes  so  far  as  to  insist  that  the  genuine  scholar 
will  welcome  any  new  discovery  made  by  others, 
even  though  in  a  field  of  science  distant  from  his 
own,  as  gladly  as  if  made  in  his  own  laboratory. 
He  can  not  work  everywhere,  but  his  spirit  can  re- 
joice in  every  extension  of  the  boundaries  of  truth. 


8o  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

So  it  should  be  pre-eminently  in  charitable  work. 
If  our  specialty  be  crippled  children,  it  will  be  of 
course  a  joy  to  make  the  lame  ones  stand  upright,  to 
straighten  the  deformed  limbs  and  make  the  frail 
body  strong  and  sound,  but  those  who  in  a  home  for 
the  aged  are  soothing  the  last  years  of  those  who 
but  for  them,  would  be  friendless  and  homeless,  or 
others  who  scour  the  farming  communities  for  good 
homes  for  the  city's  waifs,  or  those  who  work  in 
any  other  nook  or  corner  of  the  world's  charitable 
work,  are  our  brethren,  and  it  is  for  us  to  sound  no 
uncertain  note  of  appreciation  and  encouragement 
when  they  succeed  in  their  effort.  We  need,  then, 
to  study  intelligently  what  others  are  doing,  not  in 
the  exhaustive  way  that  would  be  necessary  if  we 
were  to  do  it  ourselves,  but  sufficiently  to  enable  us 
to  know  whether  it  is  a  necessary  or  useful  work, 
and  if  so  and  it  is  being  well  done,  to  be  able  to  say 
so  heartily  and  with  generous  praise.  So  also  there 
should  be  equal  readiness  to  condemn  if  condemna- 
tion is  just.  If  we  find  that  the  fair  name  of  charity 
is  exploited  for  private  gain,  if  there  is  trading  on 
the  needs  of  the  poor  for  the  sake  of  personal  profit, 
if  measures  are  taken  which  experience  shows  to  be 
productive  of  pauperism  and  injurious  to  character, 
there  should  be  no  hesitation  on  the  part  of  those 
who  are  doing  charitable  work  to  attempt  to  prevent 
it,  preferably,  of  course,  by  remonstrance  with  those 
who  are  responsible  for  the  mistaken  or  the  vicious 
measures,  but  also  by  public  denunciation  where  the 
case  demands  it  and  by  educating  the  public  in  the 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  8 1 

distinction  between  sound  and  unsound  methods  of 
work.  Backbone  in  disavowing  that  which  pretends 
to  be  charitable,  or  thinks  that  it  is  charitable  but 
is  not,  is  in  order  quite  as  much  as  the  discovery  and 
encouragement  of  genuine  charitable  endeavor. 

Co-operation,  however,  means  not  only  work  and 
intelligent  sympathy.  It  means  something  still  more 
difficult,  when  it  becomes  necessary  for  different 
agencies  or  persons  to  work  together  to  accomplish 
a  given  result  for  a  particular  family  or  class. 
Something  more  is  then  necessary  than  an  agreement 
not  to  quarrel.  It  is  necessary  for  all  to  get  the  same 
grip  on  the  essential  facts,  for  them  to  adopt  a 
definite  plan  which  will  accomplish  the  result,  and 
to  carry  out  its  separate  parts  in  good  faith.  Con- 
fidence in  the  good  intentions  of  the  other  parties  in 
the  transaction  is  pre-supposed  and  ungrudging  ap- 
preciation of  the  part  they  have  taken  should  be  a 
matter  of  course. 

These  may  seem  like  the  ordinary  social  amenities 
which  it  is  gratuitous  to  point  out.  But  it  is  true 
that  our  ethical  development  as  workers  in  chari- 
table, or  religious,  or  social  agencies  is  at  many 
points  behind  that  which  characterizes  our  individ- 
ual relations.  Official  co-operation  lags  behind  the 
need  for  it. 

There  is  still  another  word  which  should  be  added 
foi  the  benefit  of  friendly  visitors  in  their  relations 
with  their  poor.  It  is  to  have  faith  in  them.  Pro- 
fessor F.  G.  Peabody,  of  Harvard  University,  in  an 
address  delivered  in  college  chapel,  which  might 


82  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

have  been  intended  for  visitors,  declares  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  a  recoil  of  judgment. l 

"  One  man  goes  through  the  world  and  finds 
it  suspicious,  inclined  to  wrong-doing,  full  of 
capacity  for  evil,  and  he  judges  it  with  his 
ready  gossip  of  depreciation.  He  may  be  in  all 
this  reporting  what  is  true,  or  he  may  be 
stating  what  is  untrue;  but  one  truth  he  is 
reporting  with  entire  precision — the  fact  that  he  is 
himself  a  suspicious  and  ungenerous  man.  .  .  .  The 
cynic  looks  over  the  world  and  finds  it  hopelessly 
bad,  but  the  one  obvious  fact  is,  not  that  the  world 
is  all  bad,  but  that  the  man  is  a  cynic.  The  snob 
looks  over  the  world  and  finds  it  hopelessly  vulgar, 
but  the  fact  is,  not  that  the  world  is  all  vulgar,  but 
that  the  man  is  a  snob.  The  gentleman  walks  his 
way  through  the  world,  anticipating  just  dealing, 
believing  in  his  neighbor,  expecting  responsiveness 
to  honor,  considerateness,  high-mindedness,  and  he 
is  often  deceived  and  finds  his  confidence  misplaced, 
and  sometimes  discovers  ruffians  where  he  thought 
there  were  gentlemen;  but  this,  at  least,  he  has 
proved — that  he  himself  is  a  gentleman." 

The  cynic  and  the  snob,  and  no  less  the  suspicious 
and  ungenerous  man  or  woman,  is  ludicrously  out  of 
place  as  a  friendly  visitor.  Miss  Jane  Addams  has 
warned  us  that  if  we  show  that  we  attach  special  im- 
portance to  thrift,  cleanliness,  and  other  similar 
virtues,  our  poor  will  surely  simulate  those  virtues, 

1  Mornings  in  the  College  Chapel,  p.  32.     Boston,  1896. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  83 

to  the  neglect,  perhaps,  of  others  more  fundamental. 
Let  us,  then,  compel  the  simulation  of  the  most 
fundamental  virtues  by  expecting  them ;  and  let  us 
compel  the  real  growth  of  all  good  qualities  by  look- 
ing for  them  in  sincerity,  reserving  our  astonishment 
for  those  rare  instances  of  ingratitude  and  hopeless 
depravity  that  faith  cannot  conquer. 

There  are  few  to  whom,  at  one  time  or  another, 
there  does  not  come  a  stirring  call  to  some  form  of 
social  service  which  will  demand  great  personal  sac- 
rifice. Fortunately  many  forms  of  that  social  serv- 
ice which,  in  spite  of  the  greater  apparent  attractive- 
ness of  such  special  work  as  the  settlement,  the  re- 
ligious order,  the  foreign  mission,  is  really  the  high- 
est and  the  most  widely  useful,  viz.,  friendly  serv- 
ice for  families  that  are  not  fully  self-dependent,  are 
entirely  compatible  with  ordinary  business  or  house- 
hold duties.  The  sole  requisite  of  such  service  is 
the  capacity  for  disinterested  friendship.  Its  sole  re- 
ward is  the  deep,  immeasurable  satisfaction  of  hav- 
ing ministered  to  one  of  the  least.  Its  social  value 
is  that  it  raises  the  standard  of  living  and  so  lays  the 
basis  for  an  increase  of  income,  and  enables  him  who 
has  been  the  real  friend  of  one,  without  conscious 
effort,  to  become  a  public  benefactor  and  a  good  citi- 
zen. 


VII.  THE  CHURCH  AND  CHARITY 

THE  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  not  to  trace  the 
honorable  history  of  the  Jewish  and  the  Christian 
religion  in  their  relation  to  charity,  nor  yet  to  offer 
speculative  theories  as  to  the  future.  It  is  sufficient 
for  our  purpose  to  consider  some  very  elementary 
questions  as  to  the  existing  relation  between  the 
church  and  the  charitable  work  of  the  communities  in 
which  they  exist,  and  these  questions  we  may  profit- 
ably consider  chiefly  from  the  charitable  rather  than 
the  religious  point  of  view.  The  difference  between 
these  two  points  of  view  may  best  be  expressed  in 
the  form  of  two  series  of  questions  which  would 
naturally  suggest  themselves  respectively  to  a  clergy- 
man and  to  a  charity  worker.  The  first  will  prop- 
erly, and  as  a  part  of  his  professional  duty  inquire. 
How  far  may  the  church  in  the  performance  of  its 
great  spiritual  mission  in  the  world  engage  in  the 
work  of  relieving  distress  ?  How  far  shall  it  devote 
its  energies  to  the  building  of  hospitals,  the  rescue 
of  neglected  and  ill-treated  children,  the  distribution 
of  food  to  the  hungry  and  clothing  to  the  naked  ?  And 

84 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  85 

if  these  things  are  to  be  undertaken  what  mechanism 
for  these  purposes  shall  it  devise  and  put  into  oper- 
ation? The  charity  worker  on  the  other  hand,  as 
one  familiar  with  the  charitable  needs  of  his  com- 
munity, finding  various  resources  more  or  less 
definite  at  hand  for  meeting  them  asks,  how  far  is 
the  church  a  natural  source  of  relief?  Some  of 
these  families  who  are  in  distress  are  already  con- 
nected with  one  or  another  church.  Shall  we  expect 
this  church  to  supply  their  needs,  or  to  aid  in 
supplying  them,  or  is  the  problem,  in  the  individual 
case,  to  be  regarded  as  an  economic  and  secular  prob- 
lem which  interests  the  community  at  large,  and  in 
the  working  out  of  which  the  religious  affiliation  of 
the  family  may  be  ignored?  If  the  best  agencies  for 
the  relief  of  their  own  poor,  are  the  churches  also 
fitted  to  cope  with  the  destitution  of  those  who  have 
no  church  connection? 

Again,  the  charity  worker  finds  that  there  is  need 
of  a  new  hospital,  or  a  home  for  aged  persons,  or  a 
crusade  in  behalf  of  better  dwellings.  Shall  he  there- 
upon call  upon  the  churches  to  take  the  lead  in  sup- 
plying the  need,  or  is  this  a  civic  duty  for  which 
secular  agencies  are  better  fitted  and  in  the  discharge 
of  which  the  churches  will  take  a  subordinate  place 
if  they  appear  at  all  ?  The  mere  fact  that  individual 
clergymen  or  laymen  who  are  conspicuous  in  some 
form  of  religious  activity  respond  readily  to  such  a 
summons  would  not  of  itself  be  a  demonstration  that 
the  churches  are  entitled  to  credit  as  having  partici- 
pated in  the  movement.  On  the  other  hand  if  the 


86  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

response  is  largely  from  the  ranks  of  the  clergy  and 
from  those  whose  inspiration  for  humanitarian  work 
comes  from  the  church,  it  may  be  that  the  church 
will  be  entitled  to  more  credit  than  will  appear  from 
an  inspection  of  the  formal  action  of  the  churches  as 
organized  bodies. 

Rev.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  in  an  address  before 
his  associates  in  the  Unitarian  church,  stated  the 
issues  very  clearly  by  declaring  that  the  community 
in  which  there  is  but  one  church  is  most  fortunate 
in  its  charitable  relations,  because  here  the  church 
can  co-operate  directly  with  the  public  officials  for 
the  relief  of  all  the  destitution  that  might  exist. 
There  would  be  no  need  for  specific  societies  of  any 
kind.  The  church  would  assume  full  responsibility 
for  everything  which  did  not  properly  belong  to  the 
public  officials  and  would  take  from  the  latter  every 
case  of  want  in  which  humanity  suggests  that  private 
charity  should  intervene  to  prevent  the  necessity  for 
public  relief.  Where  this  desirable  situation  does 
not  obtain,  and  there  are  many  churches  instead  of 
one,  Dr.  Hale  would  have  a  confederation  of 
churches  for  the  purpose.  This  is  the  clearest  and 
most  radical  modern  expression  of  the  view  that  the 
whole  responsibility  for  private  charity  should  be 
borne  by  the  church.1  It  is  a  view  which  few  who 

1  Dr.  Chalmers  in  Glasgow,  where  the  church  at  the  time 
he  began  his  labors  was  a  state  church,  would  have  gone 
farther  and  abolished  all  public  provision  for  the  relief  of 
the  poor,  leaving  to  the  voluntary  provision  of  the  church 
parish  the  whole  responsibility.  See  Christian  and  Civic 
Economy  of  Large  Towns.  New  York,  1900. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  87 

consider  the  actual  situation  in  most  communities, 
and  the  tendencies  towards  a  differentiation  of  func- 
tions, will  be  able  to  share.  Even  the  most  devout 
and  earnest  Christian  may  well  hesitate  to  place  him- 
self in  an  attitude  of  opposition  to  the  apparent 
tendency  toward  secularizing  the  work  of  charitable 
relief.  In  some  communities  the  hospitals,  asylums, 
relief  funds,  are,  like  the  schools,  in  the  hands  of  the 
church.  In  others  the  schools  are  divorced  from  the 
church,  and  private  societies,  in  which  religious  lines 
are  ignored,  are  founded  for  the  express  purpose  of 
caring  for  the  destitute  sick  and  aged,  and  for  home- 
less children.  Already  there  is  a  professional  group 
in  every  large  community,  whose  duty  it  is  to  ad- 
minister and  serve  such  societies.  They  are  agents 
of  relief  societies,  of  associations  for  improving  the 
condition  of  the  poor,  or  of  charity  organization  so- 
cieties; or  they  are  superintendents  or  matrons  of 
hospitals,  or  other  charitable  institutions ;  or  they 
are  engaged  in  child  saving;  or  they  are  residents 
in  social  settlements ;  or  they  may  even  be  engaged 
in  the  social  work  of  a  church.  They  may  or  may 
not  be  zealous  Christians,  or  devout  Jews.  In 
either  case  their  conception  of  their  professional 
duties  will  not  differ  materially  as  far  as  its  relation 
to  religion  is  concerned  from  that  of  a  physician,  a 
lawyer,  or  a  teacher.  That  is,  whatever  his  religious 
faith,  he  will  recognize  that  there  is  a  distinct  place, 
independent  of  religious  sanctions,  for  his  vocation; 
that  he  must  study  its  principles,  familiarize  himself 
with  its  literature,  learn  from  the  experiences  of  his 


88  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

fellow  workers,  and  in  all  suitable  ways  dignify  his 
calling. 

Since  the  number  of  such  workers  in  non-sectarian 
agencies  is  now  large  and  since  it  is  certainly  increas- 
ing, it  is  well  to  consider  what  attitude  they  should 
take  towards  religious  agencies,  and  to  consider 
whether  religious  instruction  should  as  a  rule  be  a 
part  of  their  task.  A  useful  analogy  may  be  found 
in  the  relation  between  the  public  school  system  of 
America  and  religion.  The  public  school  is  sup- 
ported and  controlled  by  the  state.  The  same  people 
who,  politically  organized,  constitute  the  state  may 
also  organize  in  various  other  ways.  They  may 
have  convictions,  instincts  and  aspirations  which  do 
not  show  themselves  in  any  degree  in  the  political 
organization.  They  may  have  common  commercial 
interests,  or  social  peculiarities ;  they  may  have  na- 
tional hatreds  or  affinities  which  could  never  be  dis- 
covered by  any  study  of  their  political  constitutions 
or  laws,  or  state  papers,  or  official  acts. 

We  have  tacitly  agreed  in  the  United  States  that 
our  religion  shall  forever  be  kept  thus  apart  from  the 
state.  The  time  may  come  when  we  all  believe  in 
punishment  for  sin,  in  redemption,  in  the  incarna- 
tion, the  resurrection,  in  heaven  and  hell.  There  have 
been  times  in  the  remote  past  when  there  was  prac- 
tical unanimity  about  all  these  Christian  doctrines 
among  our  ancestors,  and  we  know  not  what  powers 
of  persuasion  and  of  conviction  the  prophets  of  the 
future  may  develop.  But  there  is  no  such  unanimity 
now. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  89 

Even  if  the  disappearance  of  sects  and  the  rise 
of  an  all-embracing  and  all-powerful  religious  faith 
should  sometime  be  accomplished,  so  that  every  knee 
should  bow  before  the  object  of  a  common  faith,  it 
would  not  necessarily — it  would  not  probably — af- 
fect our  feeling  that  its  expression  should  be  apart 
from  the  state.  Such  a  revival  would  inevitably  in- 
fluence the  individual  character  of  citizens  and  of- 
ficials. It  might  elevate  the  standard  of  public  serv- 
ice. It  might  transform  eventually  the  national 
conceptions  of  duty  and  responsibility ;  but  its  or- 
ganized expression,  its  machinery  of  propaganda, 
the  forms  of  its  worship  might  remain  as  distinct 
from  the  political  government  as  are  the  literature, 
the  music,  the  domestic  life,  the  private  charity,  or 
the  ordinary  business  enterprise  which  characterize 
the  nation  upon  its  various  sides.  And  yet  it  is  the 
same  people  that  for  certain  purposes  organize  po- 
litically and  for  other  purposes  into  religious  bodies. 
The  citizen  is  not  divisible,  although  the  forms  of 
his  outward  activities  are.  The  individual  citizen 
is  concerned  with  all  aspects  of  his  social  organiza- 
tion but  he  creates  institutions  which  have  their 
specific  character  and  their  definite  place. 

One  of  these  institutions  provided  with  us  as  a 
part  of  the  governmental  machinery  is  the  public 
school.  This  is  not,  under  our  system,  an  agency 
which  is  expected  to  accomplish  the  entire  education- 
al process.  That  task  it  shares  with  the  family  and 
the  church,  neither  of  which  are  governmental 
agencies,  and  with  what  we  sometimes  call  practical 


90  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

life,  or  in  the  cities,  by  a  grim  figure  of  speech,  the 
street — which  is  not  an  institution  at  all,  or  if  it  is, 
not  one  that  has  been,  as  a  natural  scientist  might 
say,  isolated  and  described.  The  school  is,  how- 
ever, the  definite  contribution — and  it  is  a  very  large 
one — made  by  the  state  to  the  education  of  its  future 
citizens.  Religion  we  have  kept  apart  from  the 
state.  We  are  not,  therefore,  to  rely  upon  the  school 
for  religious  instruction  or  for  the  encouragement  of 
distinctly  religious  practices. 

If  religion  be  only  the  expression  of  the  relation 
between  the  individual  and  the  universe,  then  the 
school  also  concerns  itself  in  many  ways  with  re- 
ligion, but  in  the  narrower  sense  in  which  it  means 
the  inculcation  of  particular  doctrines,  instruction  in 
particular  forms  of  worship,  reception  into  a  par- 
ticular body  of  believers,  intimate  association  with 
those  of  a  particular  household  of  faith,  it  is  beyond 
the  legitimate  scope  of  the  public  school.  The  right 
action  may  be  taught  but  it  will  be  done  without 
emphasis  upon  the  religious  sanction  for  it.  The 
Bible  may  be  read  as  literature,  and  as  literature  will 
have  an  exalted  place — a  place  altogether  apart  be- 
cause of  its  influence  in  the  development  of  later  lit- 
erature, but  prayer,  and  hymns  which  inculcate  spe- 
cial religious  doctrines  are  logically  excluded — al- 
though because  of  our  appreciation  of  the  need  for 
music  in  education  the  latter  will  go  more  slowly  and, 
as  it  were,  with  reluctance. 

The  teacher,  however,  and  the  boards  of  educa- 
tion, and  the  citizens,  who  finally  shape  the  policy 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  91 

of  the  schools,  are  not  by  this  division  of  work  made 
indifferent  to  religious  truth,  or  to  the  value  of  reli- 
gious ideals.  The  school  is  entrusted  with  the  duty 
of  mental  training  and  to  some  extent  with  the  duty 
of  physical,  aesthetic  and  moral  training.  Great 
bodies  of  common  knowledge  are  to  be  passed  on 
from  one  generation  to  the  next,  national  ideals 
and  conceptions  are  to  be  kept  alive,  workers  are  to 
be  fitted  to  play  their  part  in  the  economic  and  so- 
cial order,  and  for  these  tasks  the  school  is  pre-emi- 
nently fitted.  But  the  liberty  of  our  diverse  reli- 
gious faiths  is  not  to  be  infringed,  and  the  solemn 
responsibility  of  religious  instruction  is  to  be  left 
unimpaired  upon  the  family,  or  upon  the  religious 
organizations  to  which  the  family  has  in  part  en- 
trusted it.  This,  then,  is  a  division  of  work  adopted 
at  first  unconsciously  and  gradually — then  deliber- 
ately and  positively,  as  the  best  means  of  getting 
both  parts  of  the  work  done.  It  is  not  the  only  con- 
ceivable plan.  There  are  comparatively  few  coun- 
tries in  which  it  is  found.  It  is  not  beyond  criticism, 
but  it  is  with  us  established  beyond  successful  at- 
tack and  it  may,  therefore,  serve  as  the  best  analogy 
for  the  special  secular  agencies  which  we  are  con- 
sidering. The  point  then  which  I  wish  to  emphasize 
is  that  the  heartiest  friend  of  the  Sunday  school,  the 
most  earnest  advocate  of  the  necessity  for  careful 
religious  teaching  of  the  young  at  home,  the  most 
generous  defender  of  one's  religious  faith,  whatever 
it  may  be,  is  almost  sure  to  be  the  teacher,  or  the 
parent  who  is  in  close  touch  with  the  school  and  who 


92  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

knows  just  what  is  done  in  the  school  room.  There 
the  complexities  and  the  difficulties  of  the  education- 
al process  are  fully  revealed,  and  the  need  for  co- 
operation among  all  the  agencies  which  act  for  good 
upon  the  growing  mind  is  established. 

Passing  directly  from  the  school  to  the  private  re- 
lief agencies  and  especially  to  those  which  have  to 
do  with  the  poor  in  their  homes,  we  find  that  there 
are  similar  reasons  for  a  division  of  work.  The 
attitude  towards  religion  of  the  worker  in  a  relief 
society,  or  a  charity  organization  society  or  any  other 
secular  agency  which  deals  with  the  poor  of  many 
faiths  is  to  appreciate  its  necessity  and  to  leave  it 
strictly  alone. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  the  charity  worker  can  be 
indifferent  to  the  value  of  spiritual  influence  in  the 
reconstructive  work  which  he  has  undertaken.  He 
simply  consents  to  a  division  of  work  under  which 
the  giving  of  religious  instruction  and  counsel  de- 
volves upon  others,  as  the  giving  of  employment  also 
usually  will,  and  as,  in  the  case  of  the  charity  organi- 
zation society  at  least,  the  giving  of  material  relief 
may  also  be  relinquished  to  others.  How  could  we 
be  indifferent  to  the  value  of  religion?  Whether  we 
interpret  it  as  the  gradual  unfolding  of  religious 
conceptions,  which  finds,  not  its  culmination,  but  its 
most  conspicuous  landmark,  in  the  ceremonial  con- 
firmation of  the  liturgical  churches,  or  as  a  force 
which  in  maturity  converts  the  individual,  as  evan- 
gelical churches  more  distinctly  teach,  leading  sin- 
ners earnestly  to  desire  to  repent  of  their  sins  and 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  93 

flee  from  the  wrath  to  come — whichever  its  method 
— religion  is  a  constructive  and  reconstructive  force 
in  our  human  lives.  Those  are  entirely  right  who 
refuse  to  regard  the  church  as  solely  or  chiefly 
for  the  poor,  and  even  if  it  were  our  work 
is  not  among  the  poor  as  such.  It  is  among  the 
unfortunate,  the  unsuccessful,  the  destitute,  the  so- 
cial debtors.  The  problem  is  to  start  their  social 
ledgers  anew,  to  make  them  independent,  success- 
ful, fortunate.  If,  when  it  is  character  that  is 
abnormal,  religion  has  power  to  induce  conversion, 
to  change  the  desires  of  men  and  create  in  them 
a  new  heart ;  if  religion  has  power  to  confirm  them, 
after  education  and  faithful  counsel,  in  a  new 
manner  of  life,  then  by  all  means  let  an  appeal 
be  made  to  religion.  But  let  it  be  made  under 
conditions  which  give  religion  a  fair  chance.  Let 
neither  the  almoner  nor  the  investigator  as  such  hope 
to  play  successfully  the  role  of  religious  counsellor. 
There  may  be  emergent  cases  in  which  the  obvious 
necessity  of  saying  a  word  in  season  may  surmount 
all  general  rules,  as  a  similar  emergency  may  justify 
relief  where  it  would  not  otherwise  be  given.  But 
to  be  effective  the  call  to  repentance,  the  helpful 
counsel,  the  stern  rebuke  should  come  from  one  who 
stands  in  a  different  relation  from  that  of  the  char- 
ity worker.  It  should  come  from  parent,  or  pastor, 
or  friend;  or  if  it  come  from  a  stranger  then  in 
such  a  way  that  there  is  no  suspicion  of  ulterior 
motive.  The  character  of  adviser  on  religious  mat- 
ters is  not  theoretically  incompatible  with  that  of 


94  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

agent  or  visitor  of  a  charitable  society,  but  in  prac- 
tice they  do  not  work  harmoniously  together.  The 
more  keenly  the  chanty  worker  realizes  the  need 
for  religious  work,  and  the  greater  his  appreciation 
of  the  value  and  fruitfulness  of  that  work,  the  more 
ready  will  he  be  to  leave  it  for  those  who  are  quali- 
fied to  perform  it  and  who  are  free  from  the  handi- 
cap under  which  he  would  labor. 

Two  special  conditions  of  successful  religious  in- 
fluence must  be  borne  in  mind  by  the  secular  visitor. 
The  religious  appeal  is  made  directly  to  the  judgment 
and  the  conscience,  it  is  true,  but  it  takes  for  granted 
a  host  of  associations,  emotions  and  instincts,  which 
none  understand  except  those  who  share  them.  A 
St.  Vincent  de  Paul  visitor  tells  of  his  successful  at- 
tempt at  the  reclamation  of  an  erring  and  unfortu- 
nate brother  whom  he  found  in  a  hospital  and  from 
whom  apparently  every  shred  of  his  earlier  faith  had 
departed  except  the  practice  of  not  eating  meat  on 
Friday.  But  there  was  a  beginning  point.  Native 
missionaries  and  native  assistants  are  indispensable 
in  the  conversion  of  new  countries  because,  unless 
with  the  very  exceptional  individual,  any  appeal 
from  the  stranger  falls  upon  deaf  ears.  The  difficul- 
ty of  language  is  not  the  only  one.  There  are  more 
fundamental  differences  in  all  that  goes  to  determine 
mental  attitude. 

Since  then  the  visitor  must  have  to  do,  in  our 
American  cities,  with  the  poor  of  all  nationalities  and 
faiths,  with  various  classes  even  in  our  native  born 
population  whose  ideas  and  training  differ  radically, 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  95 

he  will  have  additional  reason  for  placing  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  religious  appeal  upon  those  who 
are  in  closest  spiritual  and  intellectual  sympathy 
with  the  particular  applicant. 

The  second  condition  is  that,  to  be  effective,  the 
religious  appeal  should  be  made  at  an  opportune — 
at  a  seasonable  time.  Now  the  crisis,  whatever  it 
may  be,  that  has  brought  the  family  to  the  attention 
of  a  charitable  society  may  indeed  be  an  opportune 
time  for  arresting  attention,  for  giving  a  warning, 
for  extending  an  invitation.  But  it  is  not  usually 
the  best  time  for  instruction,  for  advice  as  to  any  im- 
portant step  in  forming  or  changing  the  religious 
affiliation.  Then  if  ever  old  religious  ties  should  be 
restored,  counsel  should  come  from  one  who  under- 
stands. As  far  as  possible  what  is  said  should  be 
intelligible  and  familiar.  If  the  old  anchorage  is 
to  be  forsaken  and  the  sails  set  towards  a  new  har- 
bor, this  should  be  done  when  the  mariner  is  in  full 
possession  of  his  powers  and  when  the  conditions 
are  reasonably  favorable  for  calm  consideration  and 
wise  decision.  It  is  not  the  best  time  to  ask  an  ap- 
plicant to  consider  his  spiritual  welfare  when  there 
is  need  of  food  for  his  present  sustenance,  or  to  re- 
quire him  to  decide  between  the  claims  of  rival  re- 
ligious bodies  when  his  immediate  and  urgent  task 
is  to  get  his  economic  affairs  readjusted  so  that  his 
humiliating  dependence  upon  others  may  be  shaken 
off.  In  so  far  as  the  religious  problem  is  to  be 
urged  upon  the  individual  from  the  outside,  and  its 
solution  aided  by  others,  a  choice  of  times  and  seas- 


96  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

ons  must  be  made,  and  there  are  usually  better  times 
and  more  propitious  seasons  than  the  period  of 
what  may  be  called  active  treatment  by  a  charitable 
agency. 

The  friendly  visitor  who  forms  a  permanent  rela- 
tion with  the  family  is  of  course  in  a  different  po- 
sition, and,  subject  to  the  condition  already  specified, 
viz.,  the  necessity  of  starting  if  possible  from  a  com- 
mon standpoint,  the  friendly  visitor  will  naturally 
take  an  active  interest  in  the  spiritual  welfare  of  both 
parents  and  children.  Here,  however,  another  con- 
sideration arises. 

A  society  which  includes  friendly  visiting  as  a  part 
of  its  work,  or  a  society  which  places  children  in 
foster  homes,  will  find  it  advisable,  in  assigning 
visitors  and  selecting  homes,  to  regard  the  religious 
faith  of  the  beneficiaries,  securing  its  friendly  visitor 
or  its  home  from  the  same  faith  if  possible.  This 
is  only  a  further  application  of  the  principles  already 
developed.  It  avoids  confusion  and  the  danger  of 
mixing  the  religious  with  the  charitable  task.  There 
are  some  difficulties  in  carrying  out  this  policy  in 
both  instances.  We  may  find  ourselves  short  of  vis- 
itors and  homes  of  the  faiths  which  furnish  the 
largest  number  of  families  to  be  visited  and  children 
to  be  placed.  And  so  we  shall  have  to  add  the  clause 
"  when  practicable,"  as  the  statutes  prescribing  the 
duties  of  public  officials  in  the  placing  out  of  chil- 
dren sometimes  do. 

To  recapitulate,  the  policy  of  the  secular  agency 
will  be,  when  there  are  already  religious  affiliations,  to 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  97 

secure  spiritual  oversight  from  those  who  are  already 
in  some  degree  responsible  for  it;  to  awaken  earlier 
influences  and  adapt  them  to  present  needs  rather  than 
to  establish  new  ones ;  to  place  our  friends  under 
the  religious  care  of  those  who  are  efficient  and 
zealous,  but  who  also  understand  what  there  is  al- 
ready present  to  work  upon,  and  what  kind  of  appeal 
will  be  likely  to  call  forth  response.  And  this  we 
do  not  because  it  is  easiest  but  because  both  the  re- 
ligious and  the  charitable  work  are  so  difficult  and 
so  important  that  we  must  consider  how  to  get  them 
best  done  and  because  this  is,  in  the  long  run  the 
best  way  to  get  done  both  our  own  work  and  that 
which  we  thus  leave  to  others.  It  develops  a  feel- 
ing of  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  church  work- 
ers, it  sharpens  our  own  sense  of  our  immediate 
tasks,  and  creates  the  strongest  presumption  in  fav- 
or of  good  results  for  the  applicant. 

Still  another  question  arises  when  religious  bodies 
assume  also  responsibility  for  relief  work  and  friend- 
ly visiting  among  those  who  are  not  of  their  own 
membership.  The  extent  to  which  we  may  profit- 
ably use  the  churches  and  religious  bodies  for  as- 
sistance to  others  than  their  own  poor,  is  one  which 
is  quite  undetermined.  The  Buffalo  plan  of  district- 
ing the  city,  assigning  each  district  to  a  particular 
church  or  mission  or  religious  settlement,  and  refer- 
ring to  that  mission  or  church  all  the  cases  of  need 
arising  within  it — so  that  the  charity  organization 
society  becomes  strictly  a  clearing  house — has  not  as 
yet  sufficient  trial  or  sufficient  success  to  place  it 


98  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

beyond  question.     The  2ist  annual  report  of  that 
society  says: 

The  church  district  plan  has  now  been  in  oper- 
ation three  years  and  its  value  when  fully  used  is 
thoroughly  established. 

The  difficulty  is  that  by  some  of  the  district  com- 
mittees the  plan  has  been  to  a  considerable  extent 
ignored.  By  a  rule  adopted  in  November  1899,  no 
discretion  is  left  to  the  district  committee,  and  it  was 
then  announced  that  every  poor  family  living  with- 
in a  church  district  would  thereafter  be  referred  to 
the  church  which  has  taken  the  district,  unless  it  is 
referred  to  some  other  church  of  its  own  faith. 

The  defense  urged  by  the  agents  and  committees 
who  had  but  partly  used  the  plan  was  the  apathy  or 
the  unwise  charity  of  some  churches,  which  made 
them  fear  sometimes  to  surrender  a  family  to  such 
care.  The  responsible  heads  of  the  society  do  not 
consider  this  objection  valid  and  they  quote  against 
it  Miss  Richmond's  dictum  from  the  Chanties  Re- 
view *  that  it  is  important  that  relief  work  should  be 
well  done;  but  it  is  more  important  that  charitable 
people  should  themselves  learn  to  do  charitable  work 
in  a  truly  charitable  way.  This  reply  does  not  seem 
entirely  satisfactory.  It  is  important  that  charitable 
people  should  learn  to  do  charitable  work  in  a  truly) 
charitable  way,  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
churches  are  ordained  to  do  charitable  work,  or  that 
they  will  necessarily  learn  to  do  it  in  a  charitable! 

1  January,  1900. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  99 

way.  This  is  a  policy  which  is  still  distinctly  in  an 
experimental  stage.  We  are  warranted  in  scrutiniz- 
ing very  closely  the  kind  of  work  actually  done  and 
the  results  obtained  by  the  plan.  If  a  relief  fund  is 
a  detriment  to  the  spiritual  work  of  a  church,  as 
pastors  have  often  found  that  it  is,1  and  if  friendly 
visiting  should  be  done  strictly  for  the  sake  of  the 
family  rather  than  as  a  means  of  winning  converts, 
however  desirable  that  also  may  be,  then  our  general 
attitude  should  be  at  present  merely  that  of  the  ob- 
servant and  sympathetic  student  of  this  interesting 
scheme.  If  it  works  well  it  will  sustain  Dr.  Hale's 
opinion  already  quoted,  but  it  will  be  a  reversal  of 
the  general  tendency  towards  differentiation  and 
division  of  work.  It  seems  more  probable  that  prog- 
ress lies  in  the  direction  of  inducing  the  churches  to 
give  up  their  relief  work,  or  to  organize  special 
agencies  for  this  purpose,  rather  than  in  an  attempt 
to  place  again  upon  their  shoulders  responsibilities 
of  this  kind  which  they  have  gradually  to  some  ex- 
tent relinquished. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  it  is  wise  for  us  to 
watch  the  results  when  we  refer  families  to  the 
churches  for  relief  or  for  friendly  visiting.  Is  it 
expedient  for  us  to  go  further  and  watch  the  results 
when  we  refer  them  only  for  spiritual  oversight,  or 
when  we  refer  families  directly  to  the  churches  to 
which  they  belong,  in  whose  territory  they  reside,  or 
on  which  they  have  some  sort  of  claim,  such  as  that 

1  Friendly    Visiting    Among    the    Poor.     Miss  Mary  E. 
Richmond.    Ch.  X.    The  Church. 


100  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

the  children  attend  the  Sunday  school?  If  our  ob- 
ject is  only  peace  and  quietness  and  an  easy  solution 
of  our  problems,  obviously  not.  If,  however,  it  is 
our  aim  to  increase  the  probabilities  that  charitable 
people  are  to  do  their  charitable  work  well,  and  if 
we  desire  gradually  to  acquire  solid  information  and 
experience  on  which  we  can  safely  base  further 
general  conclusions  in  regard  to  these  matters,  then 
we  must  answer  this  question  also  in  a  limited  affirm- 
ative. 

The  agents  of  a  secular  society  may  not  keep  strict 
and  impertinent  watch  upon  those  with  whom  it  co- 
operates, but  incidentally  they  may  find  many  oppor- 
tunities of  gaining  information  which  will  throw 
light  upon  the  outcome  of  the  relation  which  they 
have  been  instrumental  in  establishing.  If  there  is 
mutual  courtesy  and  good  will  as  there  should  be, 
it  will  be  possible  to  make  inquiries  after  a  reason- 
able time  which  will  not  be  resented  or  regarded  as 
impertinent. 

In  the  Catholic  Charities  Association  forme< 
recently  in  the  City  of  New  York  there  is  a  Com- 
mittee on  Representation,  the  express  object  of  which 
is  to  aid  secular  agencies  to  find  competent  am 
satisfactory  Catholic  representatives  for  their  vari- 
ous boards  or  committees.  There  was  no  doubt  a 
double  motive  underlying  the  creation  of  this  com- 
mittee. There  was  a  belief  that  co-operation  in  such 
movements  as  that  of  charity  organization  society 
would  be  of  advantage  to  the  poor.  There  was  also 
a  feeling  that  it  would  do  no  harm  to  be  closely  in- 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  IOI 

formed  as  to  what  goes  on  in  these  societies  in  order 
that  Catholic  interests  might  not  suffer.  We  should 
not  quarrel  with  either  of  these  motives.  The  faith 
of  their  fathers  is  to  Catholics,  as  to  others,  a  price- 
less heritage  and  they  would  not  willingly  have  any 
family  and  especially  any  child  lose  it  because  of 
destitution  alone.  And  in  this  they  are  entirely 
right.  This  point  of  view  is  tersely  expressed  by 
Mr.  Thomas  M.  Mulry  in  an  address  before  the 
Catholic  Social  Union.  Urging  the  members  to  be- 
come active  workers  in  the  charity  organization 
society,  he  made  it  plain  that  where  non-Catholics 
were  favorably  disposed  it  would  increase  the  good 
that  could  be  done ;  where  they  were  unfavorably  dis- 
posed it  would  lessen  the  evil  likely  to  be  done,  for  it 
would  enable  them  to  care  for  the  interests  of  their 
own.  1 

This  may  be  an  example  of  enlightened  selfishness 
from  the  denominational  point  of  view,  but  it  cer- 
tainly is  enlightened  and  no  objection  to  it  can  be 
urged  from  any  secular  agency  which  courts  in- 
vestigation of  its  work.  Objection  would  arise  only 
if  this  were  to  go  so  far  that  the  representatives  of 
the  religious  bodies  were  to  devote  themselves  ex- 
clusively to  espionage,  and  to  the  attempt  to  dis- 
cover evidences  of  an  unfavorable  disposition,  and 
if  as  a  result  they  were  to  neglect  the  charitable, 
or  the  spiritual  work  which  devolves  upon  them. 

Charity  rightly  understood  is  not  so  much  secular 
as  it  is  interdenominational.  It  is  not  unsectarian 

1  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  Quarterly,  May,  1900,  p.  129. 


102  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

so  much  as  it  is  all-inclusive.  A  public  speaker  once 
pointed  out  that  between  nations  there  are  some- 
times, bonds,  affinities,  and  affections  which  are  not 
international,  but  supernational,  just  as  certain  phe- 
nomena are  supernatural  as  transcending  the  ordi- 
nary processes  of  nature.  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
charity  is  superdenominational  and  not  merely  inter- 
denominational. Its  interests  reach  far  down  to  a 
foundation  on  which  all  faiths  may  unite.  Its  sym- 
pathies and  bonds  of  union  transcend  sectarian  jeal- 
ousies and  misunderstandings  and  controversies.  Its 
principles  and  its  claims  are  recognized  not  because 
they  are  so  unimportant  as  not  to  run  counter  to  the 
sects,  but  because  they  are  positive  and  imperative 
and  fundamental.  It  is  the  common  platform  for 
all  who  believe  in  the  power  of  conversion  to  lead  to 
a  new  life,  and  for  all  who  believe  in  the  power  of 
religious  instruction  in  the  upbuilding  of  character. 
Here  we  may  join  hands  and  reason  together,  divide 
and  subdivide  our  field  until  each  spot  is  small 
enough  for  profitable  cultivation. 

The  churches  are  powerless  to  supply  the  mechan- 
ism for  a  co-operative  effort,  if  for  no  other  reason 
because  no  one  of  them  is  universal  or  even  co-exten- 
sive with  the  spirit  of  charity.  But  the  churches 
may  keep  alive  that  impulse  of  the  human  heart 
which  prompts  to  acts  of  charity  and  justice.  It 
may  generate  the  power  which  drives  the  wheels 
of  the  complex  mechanism  needed  in  our  complex 
society  for  the  efficient  relief  of  distress.  It  may 
educate  and  inspire  human  beings,  and  from  that  in- 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  103 

spiration  and  guidance  greater  deeds  of  charity  may 
spring.  It  may  bring  to  the  individual  who  is  in 
dire  distress  consolation,  or  strength  for  endurance, 
or  awakening  to  the  higher  things  of  life.  The 
burden  of  the  churches  is  heavy  and  many,  alas,  bear 
it  but  falteringly.  They  have  often  in  the  past  made 
the  mistake  of  allowing  their  interest  to  become  ab- 
sorbed in  enterprises  for  which  other  agencies  were 
better  equipped.  They  have  a  contribution  to  make 
to  the  great  task  of  abolishing  pauperism,  relieving 
destitution,  and  improving  the  social  conditions  un- 
der which  men  live,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  that 
contribution  lies  in  the  organization  of  relief  agen- 
cies under  church  control. 


VIII.  PROFESSIONAL  SERVICE 

ONE  of  the  newest  callings  to  demand  public 
recognition,  and  still  too  young  to  require  profes- 
sional training  generally  as  an  indispensable  con- 
dition for  entrance  upon  it,  the  service  of  charity  has 
nevertheless  certain  branches  of  great  antiquity,  and 
many  individual  posts  for  which  long  experience  and 
exceptional  professional  qualities  are  essential.  The 
apostolic  period  of  the  Christian  church  saw  the  set- 
ting apart  of  deacons  whose  duty  was  the  adminis- 
tration of  relief  funds.  Their  successors  are  in  some 
instances  administering  similar  funds  as  if  there  had 
been  no  intervening  experience  to  guide  them. 
Others,  however,  who  are  wiser  in  their  generation 
having  been  chosen  because  they  have  special  fitness 
for  this  task  are  willing  to  learn  how  to  perform  it 
to  the  advantage  of  the  church  and  its  beneficiaries. 
Religious  orders,  both  of  women  and  of  men.  have 
for  centuries  consecrated  their  members  to  the  serv- 
ice of  the  unfortunate.  The  lessons  gained  in  such 
service  have  been  passed  on,  sometimes  in  books, 
oftener  in  verbal  instructions  and  by  force  of  person- 
al example.  Writers  of  general  history  have  some- 
times dwelt  upon  the  larger  and  more  obvious  les- 
sons to  be  learned  from  the  administration  of  public 
104 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  105 

relief  systems,  church  charities,  and  private  endow- 
ments, and  have  described  the  means  by  which  com- 
munities have  met  the  general  distress  caused  by  un- 
expected or  widespread  disaster,  by  flood,  famine  or 
plague. 

'  It  is,  however,  a  comparatively  recent  discovery 
that  applied  philanthropy  is  a  distinct  vocation,  al- 
ready embracing  thousands  of  very  active  and  ca- 
pable workers  in  every  country  who,  although  sub- 
divided into  distinct  groups,  are  still  in  a  common 
field,  which  is  as  easily  distinguished  from  all  others 
as  that  of  the  law  or  medicine  or  engineering,  or  to 
select  a  calling  of  about  its  own  age  as  that  of  the 
librarian.  The  term  applied  philanthropy  is  far 
from  satisfactory;  but  it  must  serve  at  present  for 
lack  of  a  oetter.  Its  use  may  be  understood  to  imply 
that  those  who  practice  in  this  field  are  individually 
more  philanthropic  than  those  who  engage  in  busi- 
ness or  any  other  occupation.  Of  course  this  is  not 
the  case.  The  most  that  may  be  assumed  is  that 
those  who  engage  in  this  work  bring  to  it  a  sincere 
interest  in  the  relief  of  distress,  just  as  physicians  are 
supposed  to  be  interested  in  the  prevention  of  disease, 
and  clergymen  in  the  spread  of  the  gospel.J[ 

The  character  of  the  professional  service  in  ques- 
tion is  indicated  in  a  general  way  by  the  outline  of 
the  field  of  charity  given  in  an  earlier  chapter.  The 
destitute  sick  are  to  be  cared  for,  and  if  possible  re- 
.stored  to  health.  This  requires  on  the  one  hand  the 
services  of  physicians  and  nurses  in  order  to  diagnose 
and  treat  the  disease.  It  also  requires  the  services 


106  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

of  some  one  competent  to  diagnose  and  treat  the 
destitution.  The  physician  may  be  competent  to  do 
this,  but  he  may  not,  and  even  if  he  is  he  is  not  very 
likely  to  take  a  keen  professional  interest  in  it.  The 
superintendent  or  manager  of  a  free  hospital  should 
be  capable  of  directing  its  medical  policy  in  such  a 
way  as  to  bring  the  maximum  curative  and  prevent- 
ive result.  He  should  be  able  to  conduct  his  chari- 
table policy  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  create  pauperism, 
and  to  insure  that  resources  placed  at  his  disposal 
shall  be  utilized  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  really 
need  aid. 

Still  more  important  is  it,  that  those  who  direct 
asylums  for  homeless  children,  shall  be  not  only  able 
to  solve  the  administrative  and  educational  prob- 
lems directly  involved,  but  also  capable  of  forming 
just  conclusions  as  to  the  effect  of  their  work  upon 
the  families  to  which  the  children  belong,  and  of 
choosing  intelligently  among  the  various  methods  of 
caring  for  such  children.  Agents,  visitors,  almon- 
ers, investigators,  superintendents  and  secretaries  of 
societies  for  giving  relief,  for  improving  social  con- 
ditions, for  organizing  charity,  for  preventing  cruel- 
ty to  children  and  to  animals,  and  for  other  kinds  of 
charitable  work  are  now  generally  known  to  need 
special  qualifications,  and  if  possible  professional 
training. 

Often  very  complicated  questions,  involving  far- 
reaching  effects  upon  the  destinies  of  the  persons  con- 
cerned, must  be  decided  by  these  agents  without  very 
much  data  and  without  delay  for  consideration. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  107 

Keenness  of  insight,  considerateness,  despatch,  a 
judicial  temperament,  acquaintance  with  what  has 
been  done  in  similar  situations,  an  independent  judg- 
ment which  when  necessary  will  enable  one  to  ignore 
precedents  and  to  reach  a  sound  conclusion  on  the 
spot — are  all  required.  Physical  endurance  is  often 
put  to  a  severe  test.  In  the  hardest  snow  storm  and 
in  the  most  sweltering  summer  heat  the  demands  up- 
on the  visitor  will  suddenly  increase  and  will  be- 
come most  imperative.  Upon  the  advice  of  the 
visitor  and  the  information  which  he  brings,  may  de- 
pend the  decision  as  to  whether  relief  is  to  be  given, 
whether  a  criminal  prosecution  is  to  be  commenced, 
whether  a  patient  is  to  be  removed  to  a  hospital, 
whether  a  begging  letter  writer  is  to  be  exposed, 
whether  a  mother  is  to  be  enabled  to  keep  her  chil- 
dren, whether  a  good  home  is  to  be  found  for  a  child 
which  is  ready  to  be  placed  with  foster-parents.  The 
questions  are  often  complicated  and  difficult.  To  de- 
cide them  correctly  requires  a  judicial  temperament. 
To  carry  the  decision  into  effect  requires  executive 
ability.  To  correlate  the  various  experiences  and 
render  them  available  for  forming  conclusions  as  to 
the  general  principles  of  relief  often  demands  rare 
constructive  talent.  There  is  no  human  endowment 
which  cannot  be  utilized  by  the  professional  worker 
in  the  field  of  philanthropy. 

It  is  the  natural  result  of  the  public  recognition 
of  the  new  profession  that  there  should  be  increased 
appreciation  of  the  necessity  for  professional  train- 
ing. In  the  so-called  learned  professions  it  is  the  pro- 


108  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

fessional  schools  that  have  maintained  and  advanced 
professional  standards.  They  have  stood  for  learn- 
ing, for  the  classification  and  arrangement  of  scien- 
tific knowledge  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  practic- 
ally available.  In  the  less  developed  profession  of 
the  librarian,  special  schools  have  likewise  proved 
useful.  Certain  preliminary  steps  have  already  been 
taken  in  the  field  of  charities  and  correction  to- 
wards the  same  end.  The  first  step  is  naturally  a 
conference  for  workers  for  discussion  and  inter- 
change of  experience.  For  twenty-five  years  the  Na- 
tional Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction  has 
offered  such  opportunities  on  a  large  scale.  The 
Prison  Congress  is  of  equal  importance  for  wardens 
and  managers  of  prisons  and  penitentiaries.  Such 
special  fields  as  that  offered  by  the  Day 
Nurseries  are  also  occupied  by  national  organiza- 
tions. More  strictly  scientific  bodies  like  the 
Social  Science  Association,  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Political  and  Social  Science,  and  the  Ameri- 
can Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science, 
give  considerable  and  increasing  attention  to  philan- 
thropic education.  There  are  now  many  state  and 
local  conferences  or  conventions,  which  differ  from 
the  National  Conference  in  giving  a  better  opportu- 
nity for  full  and  thorough  consideration  of  prob- 
lems of  great  local  interest. 

The  Universities  have  in  many  instances  provided 
special  courses  in  social  work  and  there  are  indica- 
tions that,  by  the  offer  of  Fellowships  in  this  subject, 
and  by  placing  courses  of  lectures  at  hours  when  they 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  109 

may  be  attended  by  those  who  are  busy  during  work- 
ing hours,  the  Universities  will  still  further  increase 
their  contribution  to  the  academic  preparation  of 
charity  workers.  There  is  a  tendency  on  the  part 
of  boards  of  directors  of  the  societies  to  give  prefer- 
ence in  filling  important  positions  to  candidates  with 
university  training. 

The  most  important  single  agency  which  has  thus 
far  been  active  in  adding  to  the  strictly  professional 
equipment  of  charity  workers  is  a  monthly  maga- 
zine— the  Charities  Review,1  founded  by  the  New 
York  Charity  Organization  Society  and  edited  suc- 
cessively by  Professor  John  H.  Finley,  Rev.  Frede- 
rick H.  Wines,  and  Mr.  Herbert  S.  Brown.  The  ten 
volumes  of  this  periodical  have  contained  articles, 
discussions,  and  news  of  current  work,  some  of 
which  have  been  of  the  greatest  practical  service, 
while  others  embody  in  permanent  form  the  experi- 
ences to  which  there  will  long  be  occasion  for  both 
students  and  workers  to  refer.  Of  special  service 
is  a  series  of  eight  comprehensive  studies  tracing  the 
history  in  many  departments  of  American  philan- 
thropy in  the  nineteenth  century.  The  Charities  Re- 
view has  been  supplemented  by  several  more  local 
periodicals  which  although  of  modest  pretensions  are 
still  useful  for  the  information  which  they  give 
regarding  the  charitable  work  of  the  communities  in 
which  they  are  published.  The  quarterly  Record  of 
Baltimore,  and  Co-operation  of  Chicago  are  ex- 
amples. 


Published  since  February,  1901,  as  the  monthly  maga- 
zine number  of  Charities. 


110  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

In  the  opinion  of  more  than  one  competent  ob- 
server the  time  has  come  for  the  establishment  of  a 
training  school  for  professional  workers  in  charities 
and  in  correctional  institutions.  Miss  M.  E.  Rich- 
mond, when  General  Secretary  of  the  Baltimore 
Charity  Organization  Society,1  first  definitely  formu- 
lated the  demand  which  has  been  vaguely  felt  both  by 
the  workers  themselves  and  by  boards  of  managers 
who  have  encountered  difficulties  in  securing  satis- 
factory applications.  At  the  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction  in  Toronto  in  1897,  and 
again  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Political  and  Social  Science  in  Philadel- 
phia in  April  1898,  Miss  Richmond  stated  and  de- 
fended her  proposition  that  the  absence  of  a  profes- 
sional standard,  of  a  common  language,  and  es- 
pecially of  an  adequate  training  among  paid  charity 
workers,  can  be  remedied  only  by  the  opening  of  a 
"  training  school  in  applied  philanthropy,"  where 
teaching  and  training  would  go  hand  in  hand.  The 
suggestions  were  made  that  the  school  be  located  in 
a  large  city  where  practical  work  is  plentiful;  that 
its  teachers  be  university  graduates  who  have  had 
adequate  training  in  the  social  sciences,  but  who  at 
the  same  time  have  had  practical  work  in  charities; 
and  that  the  school  be  properly  endowed,  but  prefer- 
ably not  closely  affiliated  with  any  academic  institu- 
tion. Before  settling  anything  about  the  training 
school  save  the  bare  fact  that  such  a  school  is  need- 
ed, Miss  Richmond  would  have  us  search  the  coun- 
1  Now  General  Secretary  of  the  Philadelphia  Society. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  III 

try  over  for  the  right  man  to  organize  it.  Having 
found  this  man  it  would  become  immediately  neces- 
sary to  find  another  to  furnish  the  money  for  the 
experiment. 

The  chief  aim  of  the  school  would  be  to  give  our 
professional  charity  workers  better  habits  of  thought 
and  higher  ideals.  Its  basis  would  be  broad  and  its 
training  would  apply  to  relief  agents,  child-saving 
agents,  church  visitors,  institution  officers,  and  all 
other  charitable  specialists.  The  great  majority  of 
the  workers  in  question  receive  salaries  ranging  from 
$35  to  $75  per  month.  The  number  of  positions  of 
this  kind  is  increasing  steadily,  but  as  has  been 
pointed  out  there  is  still  a  lack  of  any  definite  or- 
ganization of  the  calling,  of  common  standards,  and 
of  any  large  body  of  professional  knowledge  avail- 
able for  practical  use.  Such  knowledge  at  present 
must  be  slowly  and  expensively  gathered  in  the  per- 
sonal experience  of  each  worker. 

This  is  somewhat  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  in- 
dividual worker,  but  after  all  it  is  not  chiefly  in  his 
interest  that  progress  in  these  respects  is  needed. 
The  interest  which  is  paramount  and  which  is  at 
stake  is  that  of  the  community.  From  a  narrowly 
selfish  standpoint  the  physician  or  the  lawyer  has 
no  interest  in  the  maintenance  of  a  high  professional 
standard.  It  is  essential  only  that  his  knowledge  and 
skill  surpass  those  of  his  rivals.  If  the  general  level 
is  low,  all  the  rewards  of  the  profession  may  be 
gained  by  the  quack  or  the  charlatan  who  is  a  little 
more  clever  than  his  neighbors.  But  to  the  general 


112  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

public  the  thing  of  prime  importance  is  not  individ- 
ual superiority,  but  the  general  plane  of  skill,  efficien- 
cy, knowledge  and  sense  of  honor  in  the  whole 
body  of  the  medical  and  the  legal  profession.  It  is 
this  which  secures  the  preservation  of  life  and  the 
lessening  of  suffering  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  main- 
tenance of  justice  and  of  public  order  on  the  other. 
When,  therefore,  lawyers  and  physicians  labor,  as 
they  do  constantly,  for  the  elevation  of  the  standard 
of  their  respective  professions,  it  indicates  a  breadth 
of  view  and  a  public  spirit  which  are  none  the  less 
praiseworthy  because  the  same  course  is  really  dic- 
tated by  what  some  choose  to  call  enlightened  selfish- 
ness. 

The  situation  is  precisely  similar  in  applied  philan- 
thropy. Agitation  for  an  elevation  of  the  standard 
of  work  and  professional  training  will  not  come  from 
those  who  cling  jealously  to  personal  advantages, 
gained  less  by  merit  than  by  the  absence  of  respect- 
able competition;  but  it  springs  as  in  other  profes- 
sions from  the  widespread  determination  to  be  satis- 
fied only  with  a  progressive  and  in  every  respect  en- 
lightened body  of  fellow- workers .J  In  the  interest 
of  the  community  it  is  desirable  that  organized  re- 
lief work,  the  care  of  prisoners  and  paupers,  the  re- 
form of  social  conditions,  the  encouragement  of 
thrift,  the  rescue  of  children,  so  far  as  these  are  en- 
trusted to  professional  paid  workers,  should  be 
recognized  as  a  distinct  profession,  requiring  some 
training  for  successful  work  even  in  its  least  re- 
munerative positions.  Moreover,  as  in  other  more 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  113 

highly  organized  vocations,  the  standard  of  entrance 
should  be  expected  to  become  steadily  higher  as  our 
knowledge  of  social  science  advances,  and  as  oppor- 
tunities for  higher  training  become  more  widely  dif- 
fused. The  very  modest  claim  now  put  forward  is 
that  such  an  opportunity  should  be  given  to  the  large 
number  of  persons  who  desire  to  labor  in  the  field  of 
charities  and  correction,  leaving  to  the  future  the 
question  as  to  whether  such  a  training  may  eventually 
finally  be  regarded  as  an  indispensable  condition  of 
appointment.  The  number  of  positions  affected  is 
certainly  greater  than  the  number  of  librarians  with 
their  clerks  and  assistants,  and  yet  a  library  school 
has  amply  justified  its  existence.  If  the  public  is 
more  alive  to  the  need  for  competent  librarians  than 
to  the  need  for  trained  workers  in  applied  philan- 
thropy, this  is  in  large  part  the  effect  rather  than 
the  cause  of  the  professional  school.  We  may  seek 
an  illustration  of  the  need  in  prison  administration, 
quite  as  well  as  in  relief  agencies.  Guards  and  at- 
tendants in  charge  of  prisoners  require  instruction  in 
certain  matters  on  which  instruction  can  be  given 
only  within  the  walls  of  the  particular  prison  in 
which  their  duty  is  to  be  performed.  But  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  justice,  the  reasons  for  longer 
and  shorter  sentences,  the  effect  of  imprisonment  up- 
on character,  the  results  of  criminal  association,  the 
treatment  of  ex-convicts,  the  theory  of  indeterminate 
sentences,  the  difference  between  the  treatment  of 
convicted  and  unconvicted  prisoners,  the  care  of 
prison  hospital  patients,  of  insane  prisoners,  and  of 


114  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

juvenile  offenders,  offer  interesting  and  profitable 
fields  of  study,  in  which  those  who  are  preparing  to 
enter  prison  administration  might  work  side  by  side 
with  charity  organization  and  child-saving  agents. 
In  England  there  are  already  four  schools,  two  each 
for  men  and  for  women,  for  the  training  of  prison 
wardens. 

Granted  the  necessity  for  a  special  training  for 
workers  in  charities  and  correctional  institutions  it 
may  be  questioned  whether  the.  existing  departments 
of  sociology  in  the  universities  are  not  the  best  means 
of  providing  it.  Still  another  alternative  has  been 
suggested  by  Miss  Frances  R.  Morse,  of  Boston,  viz., 
that  a  sort  of  co-operative  normal  training  plan  be 
established  by  the  larger  charity  organization  cen- 
tres.1 

An  expensive  university  training  is  probably  out 
of  the  question  except  for  the  relatively  few  who 
occupy  responsible  executive  positions.  It  is  de- 
sirable, of  course,  and  it  may  well  be  that  the  over- 
flow of  university  graduates  from  the  teaching  pro- 
fession, already  somewhat  overcrowded  in  these  de- 
partments, will  bring  an  increasing  number  of  ap- 
plications from  that  quarter.  For  a  generation, 
however,  this  will  not  fully  meet  the  need. 

The  suggestion  made  by  Miss  Morse  next  requires 
examination.  What  she  proposes  is  that  one  who 
wishes  to  enter  this  service  should  be  able  to  con- 


1  Twenty-fourth    National    Conference   of   Charities   and 
Correction,  held  in  Toronto,  1897,  p.  186. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  115 

suit  in  one  of  the  nearest  centres  some  person  a  part 
of  whose  business  it  would  be  to  keep  the  whole  field 
in  mind.  Besides  the  general  secretary,  a  committee 
of  one,  two  or  three  of  the  directors  of  a  charity  or- 
ganization society  might  be  appointed  for  this  pur- 
pose. The  applicant  would  be  advised  to  go  first  to 
the  city  in  which  the  best  charity  organization  work 
is  done.  This  would  be  for  general  preparation  and 
for  the  kind  of  work  now  given  in  several  societies 
to  agents  in  training.  After  six  months  of  such 
preparation  the  student  would  be  given  three  months 
in  the  bureau  of  information  of  a  children's  aid  so- 
ciety, to  learn  in  how  many  ways  a  child  may  be 
helped  without  removal  from  his  own  home,  and  if 
the  removal  has  to  be  made,  what  care  has  to  be 
taken  in  investigating  homes,  and  how  unceasing 
must  be  the  vigilance  and  faithfulness  of  agent  or 
visitor  when  the  child  is  placed.  \  Something  would 
then  be  learned  of  the  working  of  public  indoor  and 
outdoor  relief  and  of  other  subjects  as  time  might 
permit.  The  distinguishing  feature  of  the  plan  is 
the  substitution  of  an  associated  responsible  group 
of  advisers  for  an  academic  or  normal  training  under 
the  direction  of  regularly  appointed  instructors. 
That  many  would-be  workers  could  not  spend  even 
one  year  in  such  training  is  an  objection  which  ap- 
plies equally  to  the  proposed  training  school  and  to 
the  plan  which  Miss  Morse  suggests.  It  is  not, 
however,  a  serious  objection  to  either,  since  it  is 
probable  that  already  a  considerable  number  of  such 


Il6  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

persons  can  be  found,  and  the  benefit  to  the  service 
would  be  very  great,  even  if  the  actual  number  who 
obtained  the  training  were  small. 

The  real  objection  to  the  plan  proposed  by  Miss 
Morse  is  that  it  looks  solely  to  the  interests  of  the 
individual  applicant,  and  does  not  accomplish  for  the 
profession,  as  a  whole,  the  beneficial  results  which 
we  might  expect  from  a  properly  conducted  training 
school.  General  secretaries  and  directors  of  char- 
ity organization  societies  are  absorbed  in  their  im- 
mediate tasks,  and  could  hardly  be  expected  to  sub- 
ordinate the  interests  of  their  own  society  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  general  work  of  applied  philan- 
thropy throughout  the  country.  In  short  after  a 
careful  examination  of  all  the  objections  and  alter- 
natives it  would  seem  that  the  endowment  for  which 
Miss  Richmond  asks  should  be  provided  and  that 
the  man  (or  woman)  for  whom  she  is  in  search 
should  be  discovered.  At  the  same  time  her  avoid- 
ance of  the  "  clamorous  solicitude  about  it  of  a  hen 
who  has  only  one  chick  "  may  be  commended,  as  also 
her  advice,  even  if  we  are  not  yet  quite  ready  for 
the  school,  "  to  move  without  delay  in  the  direction 
of  some  definite  system  of  training." 

In  the  six  years  immediately  following  the  Na- 
tional Conference  in  Toronto,  there  has  been  held  in 
New  York  City,  during  a  period  of  six  weeks  in 
each  summer,  a  school  in  philanthropic  work  which 
may  be  regarded  as  the  beginning  of  such  a  pro- 
fessional school,  and  from  which  it  is  hoped  that  a 
fully  endowed  and  equipped  course  may  arise.  The 


THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY  1 1/ 

Summer  School  has  been  held  under  the  auspices  of 
the  New  York  Charity  Organization  Society  and  its 
immediate  direction  has  been  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Philip  W.  Ayres,  aided  by  a  standing  committee  of 
the  Central  Council  consisting  of  Mr.  Robert  W. 
de  Forest,  Chairman,  Mr.  Otto  T.  Bannard,  Mr. 
Jeffrey  R.  Brackett,  of  Boston,  Mr.  C.  F.  Cox,  Mrs. 
Glendower  Evans,  of  Boston,  Mr.  Homer  Folks,  Dr. 
E.  R.  L.  Gould,  of  New  York,  Dr.  S.  F.  Hallock,  of 
New  York,  Professor  Samuel  M.  Lindsay,  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  Mrs.  C.  R.  Lowell,  of 
New  York,  Miss  Zilpha  D.  Smith,  of  Boston,  and 
Mr.  Wm.  R.  Stewart,  of  New  York. 

In  the  sixth  session  there  were  students  repre- 
senting twelve  states,  twenty-two  universities,  and 
twenty-seven  charitable  agencies.  Notwithstanding 
the  varied  sources  from  which  the  members 
of  the  class  were  drawn  it  was  remarkably 
homogeneous  and  in  the  short  period  of  six  weeks 
there  was  developed  a  creditable  esprit  de  corps. 

So  much  as  this  at  least  has  been  fully  demon- 
strated: that  professional  work  in  the  field  of  ap- 
plied philanthropy  is  amply  worthy  of  the  most  ear- 
nest, careful  and  extensive  preparation  on  the  part  of 
its  neophytes.  We  may  be  almoners  of  relief,  we 
may  work  in  childrens'  institutions  or  at  finding  new 
homes  for  children,  we  may  engage  in  constructive 
social  work,  we  may  devote  our  energies  chiefly  to 
the  education  of  the  community,  or  we  may  labor  for 


Il8  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

individuals  and  families  in  the  organization  of  relief, 
and  of  new  opportunities  for  those  who  have  failed — 
but  in  all  these  and  in  other  fields  allied  to  these, 
we  have  an  outlook  which  we  could  not  afford  to 
exchange  for  that  of  any  other  profession.  We 
may  ask  the  most  searching  and  the  most  sweeping 
of  questions  without  impertinence  and  without  of- 
fense. "  You  are  in  trouble.  Well,  what  is  the 
difficulty?  Just  tell  me  all  about  it."  Family  rela- 
tionships and  family  tragedies,  it  is  our  province  and 
our  duty  to  investigate.  Weaknesses  of  human 
character  and  heroic  human  qualities  are  alike  laid 
bare  before  us.  We  are  at  the  focal  point  in  the 
converging  rays  of  social  interests.  Occupations,  re- 
ligions, social  customs,  national  characteristics,  per- 
sonal incomes,  family  budgets  of  expenditures  all 
pass  in  constant  procession  before  our — too  often  un- 
observant— eyes.  The  psychologist  studies  the  mind, 
the  physiologist  the  body,  the  sociologist  social  rela- 
tions ;  but  to  us  it  is  given  to  know  on  the  one  hand 
the  woes  and  failures  of  men,  and  on  the  other  the 
regenerating  and  curative  forces  at  work  in  the  com- 
munity— all  of  them,  religious,  educational,  indus- 
trial, social,  personal.  We  may  not  directly  wield  all 
or  many  of  them,  but  we  must  know  them  and  sum- 
mon them  in  individual  instances  to  their  task. 
What  more  inspiring  outlook  is  there  than  this,  and 
just  because  as  we  look  at  it  from  one  point  of  view 
it  is  so  depressing?  The  writer  once  took  a  visitor 
into  the  registration  bureau  of  a  charity  organization 
society.  He  has  taken  many  into  that  room.  Near- 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  119 

ly  all  give  some  exclamation  of  surprise  at  the 
elaborateness  of  the  wonderful  system  of  family  rec- 
ords and  at  the  interesting  revelations  of  the  street 
register.  But  this  was  an  unconventional  man  and 
a  man  of  quick  insight,  and  his  exclamation  when  he 
had  taken  it  all  in  was,  "  What  a  dreadful  waste  and 
wreckage  of  human  lives  all  this  represents !  "  One 
who  comprehends  it  may  well  be  depressed,  but  this 
means  only  that  he  is  getting  under  the  cruel  burden. 
It  is  the  wisest  prayer  to  be  permitted  to  get  under,  so 
far  as  our  strength  permits,  the  burden  of  the  world's 
misery.  There  is  only  One  who  has  been  able  to 
bear  it  in  its  entirety,  but  in  some  measure  we  may 
all  share  it.  If,  then,  underneath  that  burden,  we 
can  get  as  a  necessary  result  of  our  daily  occupa- 
tion, a  clarifying  vision  of  the  redemptive  social 
forces  available  for  the  cure  of  individuals  in  trouble, 
we  can  ask  no  greater  blessing  from  the  work  of 
our  hands.  In  the  largest  sense  it  becomes  religious, 
educational,  constructive.  It  is  worth  doing.  It 
calls  literally  for  the  best.  It  is  not  sentimental  or 
stultifying  or  disappointing.  It  satisfies — while  it 
grows  constantly  in  magnitude  and  in  urgency.  It 
is  no  makeshift  or  hybrid  vocation.  Precisely  be- 
cause it  emphasizes  its  subordination  and  its  serv- 
ice to  other  forms  of  social  service,  it  rises  to  the 
high  dignity  which  is  always  inherent  in  real  service. 
Its  command  to  recruits  is — Learn  just  what  belongs 
to  your  particular  service,  place  responsibility  for 
other  things  when  opportunity  offers  upon  those  to 
whom  they  rightly  belong,  give  generous  credit  and 


120  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

sympathetic  praise  when  they  do  their  part  well, 
specialize  and  study  and  improve,  and  study  harder 
and  improve  still  further  your  own  part,  and  that 
not  in  order  that  you  may  become  a  shining  example, 
but  in  order  that  you  may  do  faithfully  what  is  justly 
expected  of  you.  Your  work  is  worth  while. 


IX.  SOME  ELEMENTARY  PRINCIPLES 

THERE  has  been  no  authoritative  formulation  of 
the  principles  upon  which  relief  should  be  extended 
to  needy  families,  either  for  the  guidance  of  over- 
seers of  the  poor,  or  for  agents  of  voluntary  agen- 
cies. At  the  same  time  there  has  been  slowly  gather- 
ing a  body  of  experience,  and  to  some  extent  a  uni- 
formity of  practice,  in  regard  to  many  of  the  points 
upon  which  it  is  most  frequently  necessary  to  reach  a 
decision.  There  is  no  lack  of  discussion  upon  con- 
crete questions.  The  pages  of  the  printed  proceed- 
ings of  conferences  and  conventions  teem  with  the 
presentation  of  opinions  and  arguments  in  support 
of  this  or  that  policy.  The  State  Boards  of  Char- 
ities and  other  public  officials  have  usually  been 
ready  to  give  publicity  to  any  experiments  likely  to 
be  of  service  to  others.  The  Charities  Review  has 
had  many  valuable  articles  and  the  more  local  period- 
icals have  played  their  part  in  presenting  the  data 
for  the  generalization  which  can  not  be  much  longer 
delayed. 

For  practical  purposes  local  societies  have  gener- 
ally been  compelled  to  draw  up  definite  instructions 
to  visitors  and  agents  but  these  generally  give  wide 
latitude  in  individual  cases  and  there  is  no  set  of 


122  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

such   instructions   which   has   gained   anything  ap- 
proaching general  acceptance. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  increasingly  common  for 
relief  agencies,  public  officials,  and  church  visitors 
to  claim  that  their  relief  is  extended  upon  what  they 
understand  to  be  charity  organization  principles,  and 
it  is  usually  assumed  at  conferences  in  which  repre- 
sentatives of  organized  charity  confer  that  they  rep- 
resent a  particular  method  of  dealing  with  destitute 
families — if  not  a  particular  method  of  promoting 
the  welfare,  or,  as  the  titles  of  some  of  the  societies 
express  it,  of  improving  the  condition  of  the  poor. 
The  representatives  of  organized  charity  have  not 
adopted  any  special  system  of  political  economy  or 
social  philosophy.  They  do  not  aim  to  present  a 
common  front  of  support  or  antagonism  to  the  di- 
verse schemes  of  social  reform  and  improvement. 
They  are  not  as  a  body  free  traders,  or  protection- 
ists, single  taxers  or  socialists,  prohibitionists,  trade 
unionists,  populists  or  expansionists. 

Are  they,  on  the  other  hand,  in  substantial  agree 
ment  upon  a  body  of  principles  which  they  woul< 
have  adopted  in  the  charitable  relations  of  the  need; 
and  the  well-to-do?     This  inquiry  can  scarcely 
answered  by  gathering  individual  opinions.     It  will 
do  no  harm,  however,  to  present  a  few  broad  general 
principles  upon  which  the  writer  believes  that  there 
is  most  general  agreement,  claiming  no    greater  va- 
lidity for  them  than  naturally  attaches  to  an  intimate 
personal  acquaintance  with  the  actual  work  of  many 
of  the  larger  and  the  smaller  societies,  the  churches 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  123 

and  special  relief  agencies,  and  not  least  some  of  the 
individual  efforts  to  relieve  distress. 

I 1 


Those  who  deliberately  choose  to  live  by  begging, 
who,  having  no  visible  means  of  support,  live  with- 
out regular  employment :  pan-handlers,  hoboes,  and 
tramps,  whether  homeless  wanderers  or  residents 
with  the  semblance  of  family  ties,  are  not  properly 
to  be  treated  by  any  relief  methods  whether  individ- 
ual or  organized.  The  primary  duty  of  the  chari- 
table is  to  remove  the  possibility  of  their  securing  an 
income  by  the  practice  of  their  chosen  calling.  / 

It  does  not  follow  that  there  are  no  positive  steps 
that  can  be  taken  to  aid  in  the  reformation  of  va- 
grants and  rescuing  those  who  are  homeless  and 
unemployed  because  of  misfortune  rather  than  from 
choice.  The  offer  of  regular  employment  in  some 
simple  but  laborious  occupation,  with  compensation 
at  less  than  market  rates  has  been  widely  and  to  a 
considerable  extent  successfully  relied  upon  as  a 
means  of  lessening  their  numbers.  Detention  in  a 
house  of  correction  at  hard  labor  on  a  plan  of  cumu- 
lative, or  progressively  lengthened  sentences  is  a 
more  adequate  measure.  Best  of  all,  though  not  yet 
adopted  anywhere  in  America,  would  be  a  farm 
school  or  colony  to  which  vagrants  who  are  not  too 
old  to  be  taught  could  be  committed  for  an  indeter- 
minate period  depending  upon  the  length  of  time 
necessary  to  inculcate  habits  of  steady  industry., 


124  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

The  family  whose  head  is  chronically  unemployed 
should  receive  assistance  at  home  only  when  simul- 
taneous steps  are  taken  to  compel  the  natural  bread- 
winner to  support  them.  t  One  of  the  most  interest- 
ing problems  awaiting  solution  is  the  determination 
of  the  extent  to  which  industrial  displacement  and 
psychological  defects  respectively  are  the  real  causes 
of  homelessness  and  lack  of  regular  employment. 
That  changes  in  machinery  and  in  methods  of  in- 
dustry, seasonal  occupations  and  other  economic  in- 
fluences are  partly  responsible,  few  will  deny.  It  is 
equally  obvious  that  there  are  many  who  are  so  con- 
stituted that  if  left  to  their  own  resources,  they  can 
scarcely  contribute  to  society  one  year  with  another 
the  value  of  what  they  consume.  Shiftlessness, 
lack  of  any  feeling  of  responsibility  for  the  family 
and  the  wandering  impulse  are  responsible  for  the 
failure.  Self-dependent  workingmen  and  their  fam- 
ilies would  gain  by  eliminating  such  persons  from 
ordinary  competition,  and  would  doubly  gain  if  al 
of  them  could  receive  efficient  training  and  if  the 
labor  of  those  who  have  been  dependent  could  be  so 
organized  and  directed  as  to  make  their  social  con- 
tribution of  value. 

Investigation  and  the  study  of  individual  cases,  to 
determine  whether  aid  by  transportation  to  other 
places,  loan  of  money  to  purchase  tools,  the  taking 
of  a  personal  interest  in  finding  employment,  and 
finally,  a  series  of  industrial  schools  in  which  various 
trades  are  taught,  and  a  farm  colony  for  training  in 
agriculture,  would  all  be  essential  parts  of  a  plan 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  125 

for  dealing  comprehensively  with  the  problem  of 
vagrancy. 

We  may  now  ask  what  should  be  done  in  a  certain 
limited  number  of  constantly  recurring  cases  in 
which  not  the  stranded  individual  but  the  family  as 
a  whole  must  be  considered.  First  among  these 
comes  naturally  toxmind  that  of  the  destitute  but 
reasonably  capable  widow  with  a  number  of  small 
children.  It  is  clear  that  such  families  as  these 
should  receive  assistance,  if  assistance  is  necessary, 
from  private  rather  than  from  public  sources.  For. 
the  sake  of  both  mother  and  children  they  should  be 
spared  the  necessity  of  application  at  the  office  of  a 
public  department.  Private  relief  may  be  given  in 
such  a  way  that  the  children  need  not  know  its  source 
or  incur  any  permanent  stigma.  If  it  can  be  given 
secretly  so  much  the  better.  A  friendly  visitor 
should  be  obtained  and  adequate  relief  should  be 
provided,  enough  to  prevent  all  begging  and  enough 
to  prevent  undue  anxiety.  There  should  be  a  regu- 
lar allowance  or  pension  if  none  of  the  children  are 
old  enough  either  to  contribute  to  the  family  earn- 
ings or  to  take  care  of  younger  children,  in  order 
that  the  mother  may  be  employed.  The  amount 
should  not  be  large  enough  to  interfere  with  any 
proper  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  family  to  be  self- 
supporting.  The  mother  should  by  all  means  be  en- 
couraged to  keep  her  children.  If  she  has  to  go  out 
to  work,  care  should  be  provided  for  the  children  in 
her  absence,  although  this  can  often  be  done  by  rela- 
tives or  neighbors.  It  is  sometimes  practicable  for 


126  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

two  widows  to  live  together,  one  going  out  to  work, 
the  other  caring  for  rooms  and  children.  In  cities 
where  it  is  necessary  for  the  mother  to  work,  office 
cleaning  is  the  most  convenient  occupation  for  able- 
bodied  women  who  must  rely  upon  work  of  this  kind 
in  that  it  does  not  occupy  the  entire  day,  but  leaves  a 
part  for  home  and  children.  If,  however,  the  chil- 
dren are  small,  or  if  it  is  necessary  to  prepare  them 
for  school,  it  may  be  impossible  for  a  woman  to  leave 
her  home  at  the  time  of  day  when  this  work  has  to 
be  done.  The  only  course  may  then  be  to  take  work 
at  home  such  as  washing  or  sewing.  There  should, 
however,  be  no  hesitation  in  giving  liberal  assistance, 
since  the  double  burden  of  making  a  home  and  earn- 
ing the  means  of  livelihood  is  heavier  than  can  be 
borne  successfully  by  any  except  the  most  capable. 
It  involves  a  heroic  struggle  in  which  it  is  true  that 
many  have  succeeded  unaided,  but  in  which  many 
who  have  made  the  bravest  attempt  have 
realized  that  it  meant  deprivation  of  the  care 
and  personal  attention  which  is  the  birthright 
of  every  child  whose  mother  is  living.  A  mother 
should  ordinarily  be  encouraged  to  keep  her  chil- 
dren rather  than  to  have  them  placed  in  an  asy- 
lum or  adopted  into  other  families,  although  there 
are  exceptional  instances  in  which  either  of  these 
two  courses  will  be  advisable  for  some  members  of  a 
large  family  of  children. 

Close  study  of  any  such  case  as  this  will  almost 
certainly  suggest  special  devices  adapted  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  family  in  question.  For  example, 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  127 

work  has  been  found  for  one  such  woman  in  a  day 
nursery  where  she  can  have  her  baby  with  her  dur- 
ing the  working  hours,  and  other  children  of  suita- 
ble age  may  be  cared  for  in  the  same  nursery.  An 
apartment  somewhat  larger  than  is  required  for  the 
family  can  be  taken  and  one  or  more  rooms  sub-let 
as  a  means  of  helping  to  pay  the  rent  for  the  whole. 
One  experienced  worker  has  expressed  the  opinion 
to  the  writer  that  any  able-bodied  and  intelligent  wo- 
man, who  has  natural  affection  for  her  children, 
will  be  able  after  temporary  assistance  and  encour- 
agement to  find  means  of  supporting  them  and  that 
aid  will  be  necessary  only  during  the  period  of  read- 
justment and  of  recovery,  it  may  be,  from  a  shock  of 
bereavement.  This,  however,  is  probably  too  op- 
timistic. Many  will  succeed,  but  to  fall  short  of  suc- 
cess in  so  stupendous  an  undertaking  is  no  disgrace. 
Friendly  visitors  have  confessed  that  in  some  such 
cases  they  quickly  find  that  there  is  nothing  further 
for  them  to  do  and  that  the  women  whom  they  visit 
quickly  begin  to  give  them  more  points  than  they 
get  in  return. 

Assuming  that  assistance  is  necessary  and  that  it 
should  be  from  a  private  source  rather  than  a  pub- 
lic source,  the  question  arises  whether  it  should  pref- 
erably come  from  a  relief  society,  from  the  church 
with  which  the  family  is  associated,  or  from  private 
individuals.  This  question  is  to  be  determined  by 
the  conditions  of  charitable  relief  commonly  prevail- 
ing in  the  community.  Relief  societies  usually  hes- 
itate to  burden  themselves  with  a  regular  pension 


128  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

which  may  need  to  be  continued  for  several  years, 
although  there  are  societies  for  the  special  purpose 
of  providing  such  allowances.  All  would  agree  that 
the  immediate  relatives  and  others  who  stand  in  some 
close  personal  relation  to  the  family  should  first  do 
all  that  they  can.  It  is  well  to  look  carefully  into 
these  possibilities  before  considering  either  a  relief 
society  or  other  sources.  Even  though  the  amount 
which  each  can  give  may  be  very  small  it  will  be  a 
gain  to  systematize  it  and  to  have  it  understood  that 
what  is  obtained  from  outsiders  will  supplement  this 
aid  from  personal  sources,  and  in  most  instances 
the  outside  aid  should  be  conditional  upon  regular 
contributions  from  relatives  able  to  assist.  It  may 
then  be  advisable  to  call  upon  individuals  either  per- 
sonally, or  through  suitable  public  appeals,  conceal- 
ing, however,  in  all  actions  requiring  publicity  the 
individuality  of  the  family  to  be  aided,  for  a  sum 
which  will  provide  the  remainder  of  the  necessary 
amount  for  the  necessary  period,  say  one  year,  or,  if 
it  is  obvious  that  it  will  be  two  years  before  a  child 
is  old  enough  to  begin  to  earn  something,  then  for 
that  length  of  time.  Supplementary  to  ihe  relief 
there  is  needed  the  continued,  faithful  attention  and 
personal  interest  of  a  friendly  visitor  whose  energies 
will  not  be  divided  among  too  large  a  number  of 
families  but  who  will  study  closely  and  will  help  in- 
telligently one  or  two  families. 

If  relief  societies  are  to  be  employed  special  re- 
lief agencies  such  as  the  Hebrew  Charities  for  He- 
brews, the  German  Society  for  Germans,. the  Soci- 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  I2Q 

ety  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  for  Roman  Catholics  liv- 
ing in  parishes  in  which  Conferences  of  this  So- 
ciety exist,  etc.,  should  generally  be  utilized  before 
general  societies,  and  if  there  is  a  reasonably  close 
church  connection  of  any  kind  the  pastor  or  those  in 
charge  of  the  relief  work  should  be  consulted  before 
outsiders  are  solicited  to  help. 

A  widow  with  one  small  child  or  an  unmarried 
woman  with  one  child  (the  latter  a  not  infrequent 
applicant  for  charitable  aid)  should  be  helped  to 
find  employment  where  the  child  will  be  permitted 
to  remain  with  the  mother  in  consideration  if  neces- 
sary of  smaller  wages.  If  nothing  else  is  possible 
a  woman  in  this  situation  can  often  get  a  place 
either  in  a  private  family  or  in  a  foundling  asylum  to 
nurse  her  own  child  with  another.  No  pains  should 
be  spared  to  enable  a  mother  under  such  circum- 
stances to  keep  with  her  a  single  young  child. 

More  frequently  it  becomes  necessary  to  decide 
what  to  do  for  a  destitute  but  incapable  widow  with 
small  children.  Take  first  the  case  of  a  woman  of 
this  description  of  good  moral  character  but  ineffi- 
cient. Where  public  out-door  relief  is  given  such 
cases  as  this  appear  upon  the  books  in  large  num- 
ber. An  officer  of  the  Overseers  of  the  Poor  of 
Boston  states  that  the  larger  number  of  widows  that 
he  has  to  deal  with  are  of  this  class.  Many  of  them 
are  in  immediate  need  of  training  of  some  kind.  The 
difficulty  is  that  they  have  depended  on  their  husband 
for  support,  have  not  needed  to  do  anything  but 
household  work — even  that  may  have  been  done  bad- 


130  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

ly — and  they  have  no  knowledge  of  any  money-earn- 
ing occupation.  Under  the  pressure  of  necessity 
such  women  will  sometimes  learn  quickly  and,  after 
a  time,  if  temporary  help  is  given,  they  will  be  able 
to  get  along  by  themselves  taking  care  of  their  own 
children.  Others  who  have  had  much  experience 
from  the  standpoint  of  private  charity  with  fami- 
lies who  are  also  in  receipt  of  public  relief  doubt 
whether  women  of  this  type  who  once  receive  public 
aid  ever  get  over  the  necessity  for  it.  Certain  it  is, 
however,  that  private  charity  is  often  easily  dis- 
couraged with  such  cases  and  readily  leaves  them, 
if  there  is  public  relief,  to  that  resource.  When 
this  is  done  the  public  officials  feel  obliged  to  give 
assistance  and  the  only  thing  they  can  do  is  to  keep 
their  wants  barely  supplied,  bringing  pressure  to 
bear  upon  them  to  make  more  serious  efforts  at  self- 
support.  The  public  official  just  quoted  insists  that 
many  of  these  families  after  temporary  assistance  do 
succeed  in  getting  on  their  own  feet,  but  that  many 
others  continue  as  public  charges  until  the  children 
are  old  enough  to  take  care  of  the  family.  Children 
thus  brought  up  are  themselves  not  very  likely  to  be- 
come self-supporting.  More  fortunate  is  the  family 
of  this  type  in  a  city  which  has  no  public  out-door  re- 
lief or  the  family  that  does  not  learn  the  way  of  ac- 
cess to  it  where  it  exists.  The  friendly  visitor  is 
here  indispensable.  Assistance  must  sometimes  be 
given  but  it  must  be  accompanied  by  constant  instruc- 
tion and  encouragement  to  take  proper  care  of  the 
children.  The  relief  should  be  an  instrument  for 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  131 

the  steady  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  fam- 
ily and  when  it  ceases  to  accomplish  this  purpose  it 
should  be  increased,  diminished,  or  withdrawn  as 
circumstances  require,  until  it  can  accomplish  its 
purpose.  Again  a  close  study  of  the  personal  char- 
acteristics should  be  made  and  advantage  taken  of 
every  favorable  circumstance.  The  education  and 
amusement  of  the  children,  protection  from  physical 
and  moral  dangers,  the  development  of  sound  bod- 
ies and  the  awakening  of  intellectual  interest  must 
always  be  kept  constantly  in  mind.  Too  much  must 
not  be  expected  of  a  woman  who  is  unexpectedly 
compelled  to  earn  a  living  for  herself  and  children, 
and  if  she  is  well  disposed  and  does  reasonably  well 
so  much  of  her  duty  toward  the  children  as  she  could 
have  been  expected  to  do  if  the  natural  bread-win- 
ner had  survived,  private  generosity  may  well  be 
content  for  a  time  to  make  up  all  of  the  remainder. 
Still  more  difficult  becomes  the  task  of  dealing 
with  a  destitute  widow  of  immoral,  intemperate  or 
vicious  character  with  small  children.  Where  there 
is  neglect  or  immorality  that  can  be  proven  in  court 
the  children  may  properly  be  removed  from  the 
mother's  influence.  A  friendly  visitor  fitted  to  grap- 
ple with  so  difficult  a  problem  should  be  secured  if 
possible,  and  an  energetic  attempt  at  reform  should 
be  undertaken.  The  children  may  be  watched  over 
and  helped  in  any  way  that  will  not  result  in  con- 
tributing to  the  support  of  the  mother's  vices.  In 
some  states  the  laws  permit  the  appointment  of  a 
guardian  for  the  children  under  such  circumstances, 


13*  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

and  the  threat  of  removal  will  sometimes  be  suffi- 
cient to  induce  an  orderly  and  decent  life  on  the 
mother's  part.  Relief  may  be  given  in  such  a  case 
only  with  the  greatest  caution  and  in  such  a  way  as 
to  make  it  certain  that  there  is  proper  care  for  the 
children  and  abstinence  from  drink  and  immorality 
while  assistance  is  given.  If  the  children  are  re- 
moved in  such  a  case  as  this  it  should  be  permanent- 
ly. The  unnatural  mother  should  not  have  the  right 
to  reclaim  the  children  as  soon  as  they  are  old  enough 
to  work.  A  friendly  visitor  in  such  a  family  as  this 
must  be  one  who  is  willing  to  deal  with  all  kinds  of 
discouraging  circumstances  and  to  watch  hopefully, 
for  several  years  it  may  be,  for  signs  of  improve- 
ment, having  always  in  mind  the  interests  of  the 
children  as  well  as  the  reformation  of  the  mother, 
and  watching  opportunities  to  introduce  them  to 
higher  and  better  things  than  those  to  which  they 
have  been  accustomed. 

Applications  are  often  received  from  families  in 
which  one  or  both  parents  are  living  but  destitute 
temporarily  because  of  accident  to  or  illness  of  the 
bread-winner.  Carefully  administered  relief  from 
a  private  source  until  the  emergency  is  over  will 
meet  this  situation,  but  those  who  believe  most 
strongly  in  the  potency  of  friendly  visiting  would  in- 
sist that  even  here  continued  visiting  after  the  emer- 
gency is  over  is  necessary,  to  get  the  family  back  on 
a  thoroughly  self-supporting  basis,  and  to  aid  them 
to  begin  saving  for  the  next  emergency.  It  is  ta- 
ken for  granted  that  relief,  as  in  other  cases,  would 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  133 

come  from  sources  personal  to  the  applicant  before 
calling  in  outside  agencies.  Those  who  believe  in 
public  outdoor  relief  would  ordinarily  say  that 
public  and  private  charity  should  work  together  in 
a  case  of  this  kind,  neither  being  able  to  do  alone 
what  is  necessary. 

If  the  application  comes  from  a  family  where  there 
is  a  lazy  or  shiftless  father,  there  should  be  no  re- 
lief, but  there  should  be  the  influence  of  a  friend- 
ly visitor.  The  man  should  be  compelled  by  law  to 
support  his  family.  If  unable  to  provide  a  bond 
when  required  by  the  court,  and  if,  as  a  consequence, 
the  bread-winner  is  imprisoned,  there  is  still  danger 
of  providing  too  much  relief,  as  is  also  the  case  with 
families  who  have  been  deserted  by  the  bread-win- 
ner. To  supply  relief  may  be  necessary,  and  the 
character  of  the  mother  may  be  such  as  to  justify 
ample  assistance  during  the  period  in  which  the  hus- 
band cannot  derive  any  personal  advantage  from  it. 
If  a  deserted  wife  cannot  support  herself  and  her 
children  and  if  assistance  seems  to  be  necessary, 
measures  should  be  taken  to  deal  by  law  with  the 
husband,  if  he  can  be  found  or  if  he  reappears.  Pub- 
lic charity  will  almost  invariably  treat  deserted  fami- 
lies identically  as  it  would  treat  widows  and  children. 
This  is  an  indication  of  the  less  elastic  and  efficient 
character  of  public  relief  since  the  social  effects  of 
equal  treatment  are  obviously  bad.  A  public  official 
cites  a  case  in  which  the  husband  deserted  in  order 
that  the  family  might  be  better  cared  for  without 
him,  and  another  in  which  the  man  disappears  re- 


134  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

peatedly  before  the  birth  of  each  child.    These  cases 
are  indeed  not  uncommon. 

The  friendly  visitor  by  which  is  meant,  of  course, 
both  the  one  who  is  technically  so-called  and  any 
other  person  whether  a  public  official,  or  the  paid 
agent  of  a  private  society,  or  a  volunteer,  who  can 
establish  a  personal  interest  in  the  family  which  is 
to  be  assisted — such  a  visitor  may  often  accomplish 
excellent  results  in  a  family  made  destitute  by  the 
bad  conduct  of  the  head  of  the  family,  if  able  to  real- 
ize what  the  temptations  are  which  the  man  encount- 
ers and  if  with  genuine  sympathy  and  persistent  zeal 
the  visitor  labors  at  creating  a  favorable  environ- 
ment. It  has  been  suggested  that  shiftlessness  and 
continued  inability  to  retain  or  to  secure  employ- 
ment are  often  due  merely  to  a  lack  of  effective  im- 
agination. After  many  discouragements  it  becomes 
difficult  for  one  to  realize  that  success  is  at  all  pos- 
sible. Under  such  circumstances  friendly  encour- 
agement may  work  a  revolution  in  character  and 
may  restore  the  family  to  self-dependence  by  the 
best  of  all  methods.  An  agent  cites  a  case  in  which 
the  visitor  took  charge  of  a  family  consisting  of  a 
man,  his  wife  and  six  children.  The  visitor  when 
a  young  man  was  himself  in  danger  of  becoming  in- 
temperate but  had  given  up  the  drinking  habit  en- 
tirely. His  own  difficulties  in  doing  this  made  him 
realize  that  when  a  person  is  asked  to  break  off 
such  a  habit  he  must  be  surrounded  by  conditions 
that  will  be  helpful  to  this  end.  The  visitor  in  the 
case  in  question  determined  therefore  to  do  two 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  135 

things,  first  to  surround  the  man  at  home  with  things 
that  would  interest  him.  In  this  instance  the  man 
was  fond  of  music  and  the  visitor  purchased  an  ac- 
cordion for  his  friend's  use.  The  second  thing  was 
to  bring  the  man  into  the  society  of  others  who  were 
temperate  and  to  lead  him  to  become  sufficiently  well 
acquainted  so  that  if  absent  from  customary  gather- 
ings he  was  missed.  In  these  ways  the  man  was 
helped  over  his  difficulties  and  his  drinking  habits 
were  entirely  broken  up.  Chief  reliance  is  to  be 
placed  on  educational  work,  not  on  money  or  other 
gifts. 

Widowers  with  young  children  often  have  great 
difficulty  in  providing  suitable  care  for  them.  If 
the  man  has  no  mother  or  sister  who  is  free  to  care 
for  them,  efforts  should  be  made  to  induce  relatives 
to  give  them  a  home,  or  where  there  are  asylums  the 
father  may  pay  for  their  board  in  one  of  them. 
They  should  never  be  accepted  as  public  charges  if 
the  man  is  able-bodied  and  in  position  to  pay  for 
their  support.  If  there  is  a  girl  old  enough  to  care 
for  the  family  a  friendly  visitor  may  be  of  the  great- 
est possible  assistance  in  advising  and  helping  her. 
Still  more  necessary  is  such  friendly  counsel  and  as- 
sistance if  the  family  is  without  either  father  or 
mother  and  a  home  is  to  be  provided  by  other  chil- 
dren. Such  liberality  as  was  suggested  for  widows 
with  small  children  would  here  as  a  rule  be  even 
more  imperatively  required. 

Single  women  and  widows  without  children  should 
not  be  encouraged  to  live  alone  and  pay  rent.  They 


136  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

should  seek  places  as  servants  or  at  other  work.  If 
aged  or  disabled  they  should  be  provided  for  in  the 
almshouse  or  in  the  hospital,  or  in  exceptional  cir- 
cumstances, where  the  dependence  is  one  which  could 
not  easily  have  been  obviated,  a  private  pension  may 
be  provided.  Old  men  and  women  should  be  cared 
for  by  children  or  other  relatives  if  possible,  although 
not  necessarily  taken  into  their  homes.  If  admission 
can  be  secured  to  a  home  for  aged  persons  on  pay- 
ment of  a  reasonable  fee  and  if  there  are  adequate 
reasons  for  their  not  having  saved  such  a  fee,  it  may 
properly  be  supplied  by  special  contributions  from 
the  charitable,  unless  there  are  near  relatives  who 
should  pay  it,  in  which  case  the  almshouse  should 
ordinarily  be  insisted  upon  as  the  only  alternative. 
The  money  required  for  the  admission  fee  to  a  home 
may  sometimes  be  applied  to  better  advantage  in 
paying  board  in  some  private  family  where  there 
would  be  less  of  the  institutional  atmosphere,  and 
there  are  even  instances  in  which  financial  assistance 
may  properly  be  given  to  a  relative  or  near  friend  on 
condition  that  the  homeless  aged  or  disabled  person 
is  given  a  home. 

Orphans  not  old  enough  to  establish  a  home  should 
be  provided  for  if  possible  by  finding  private  foster- 
families  into  which  they  may  eventually  be  adopted. 
Placing  out  work  of  this  kind  requires  the  greatest 
discretion,  but  its  peculiar  problems  need  not  be 
considered  here.  It  will  sometimes  be  possible  to 
provide  temporarily  for  children  in  the  expectation 
that  they  will  be  reunited  as  soon  as  there  is  some 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  137 

earning  capacity,  at  which  stage  assistance  carefully 
given  may  be  of  the  greatest  usefulness.  An  in- 
teresting question  arises  as  to  how  far  poor  relatives 
should  be  asked  to  assume  the  care  of  dependent 
children.  The  most  general  answer  is — just  so  far 
as  they  are  able  to  do  it  without  harm  to  the  children. 
If  a  child  is  forced  into  a  family  where  the  feeling 
is  strongly  against  it,  the  child  will  frequently  receive 
less  benefit  than  injury.  The  general  principle,  how- 
ever, is  that  relatives  should  be  made  to  do  all  that 
they  possibly  can. 

A  special  pitfall  lies  in  the  path  of  those  who 
think  that  temporary  relief  can  safely  be  given  in 
violation  of  the  ordinary  principles  which  should 
govern  the  relief  of  destitution.  Such  a  distinction 
implies  that  there  is  a  difference  between  tempo- 
rary and  permanent  aid  in  the  effect  on  the  creation  of 
pauperism  and  that  the  former  is  exempt  from  such 
a  tendency.  It  will  be  apparent  on  consideration, 
however,  that  if  indiscriminate  almsgiving  does  cre- 
ate pauperism  at  all  it  is  universally  temporary  aid 
that  causes  the  mischief.  Pennies  or  dimes  given 
way  to  the  beggar  on  the  street,  food  given  at  the 
[basement  door,  money  handed  out  in  response  to  a 

:hetic  appeal  for  aid  in  payment  of  rent  because  of 
ic  affliction,  all  these  are,  of  course,  intended  as 

iporary  aid  and  are  everywhere  defended  on  the 

iund  that  the  giver  prefers  to  be  imposed  upon 

:her  than  to  turn  away  any  case  which  may  per- 

ince  be  one  of  genuine  distress. 

The  objection  to  this  policy  is  that  it  takes  no  real 


138  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

account  of  the  positive  injury  done  in  such  cases. 
Unless  investigation  can  be  made  before  the  giving 
of  temporary  aid  there  is  no  effective  precaution 
against  such  injury  or  against  any  of  the  clearly 
recognized  evils  of  indiscriminate  almsgiving.  The 
danger  does  not  arise  in  any  appreciable  degree  from 
permanent  aid.  No  one  is  likely  to  assume  the 
burden  of  permanent  support  of  a  family  whether 
by  pension,  by  paying  admission  fees  to  private 
homes,  or  by  taking  the  trouble  necessary  to  find 
homes  for  children,  unless  he  knows  the  family  and 
is  reasonably  well  satisfied  that  the  circumstances! 
warrant  such  a  step.  All  of  us  are  more  or  less 
subject  to  the  temptation  of  aiding  "  temporarily  | 
those  who  appear  to  be  in  need. 

The  suggestions  that  have  been  made  are  by  nc 
means  exhaustive  but  in  so  far  as  they  have 
validity  they  apply  to  temporary  as  well  as  to  permai 
nent  relief.     Finally  they  are  not  directions  whidl 
may  be  followed  blindly  in  any  case.     Wisdom  ii| 
dealing  with  distress,  it  cannot  be  too  often  repeate 
comes  only  after  a  close  and  sympathetic  study  o| 
the   special   problems   presented   by   the   partici 
family  to  be  aided.     No  two  cases  are  alike;  noi 
is  easy.     The  practice  of  charity  cannot  be  reduc 
to  ready-made  rules  for  the  inexperienced  and  tl 
amateur.     Quite  as  much  as  in  the  practice  of  la'j 
or  of  medicine,  principles  must  be  applied  by  th( 
who  are  trained  in  their  application,  but  such  trail 
ing  may  be  to  a  large  extent  the  possession  of  thai 
who  care  for  the  poor  even  though  occupied  also  wi'l 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  139 

other  things.  Although  it  is  not  the  duty  of  all  to  be 
scientifically  trained  in  science  or  medicine,  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  to  be  charitable,  and  no  one  is  charitable 
whose  attempts  at  relief  result  only  in  the  help  that 
hurts. 


X.  SOME   ELEMENTARY   DEFINITIONS. 

In  undertaking  the  definition  of  the  technical 
terms  which  the  lecturers,  the  writers  of  books,  and 
the  practical  workers  in  charity  have  occasion  to 
use,  a  little  reflection  makes  it  apparent  that  diction- 
ary definitions,  dogmatically  laid  down  and  accepted 
on  faith,  are  not  what  is  desired.  It  is  more  useful 
to  define  our  terms  after  we  have  become  more 
familiar  with  them  and  after  they  have  for  us  a 
more  certain  content — a  significance  gained  by 
actual  use.  If,  therefore,  we  are  able  to  make  the 
discussion  any  more  logical  and  interesting  than 
the  columns  of  a  dictionary  taken  in  their  somewhat 
arbitrary  and  disconnected  arrangement,  it  will  be 
because  the  words  and  the  expressions  that  are  to  be 
defined  are  already  familiar,  and  because  we  have  a 
mental  background  upon  which  these  fragmentary 
sketches  will  take  their  natural  place. 

Let  us  begin  in  a  more  elementary  way  than  with  j 
certain    technical    phrases    which    belong    to    our 
special  vocabulary,  such  as  organised  charity,  inde- 
terminate sentence,  board  of  control,  district  nurse. 
These  are  all  nouns,  and  nouns  are  the  least  inter- 
esting and  most  artificially  civilized  parts  of  our  I 
language.     The  verbs  are  the  real  thing.     It  is  by 


THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY  14! 

means  of  verbs  that  we  express  both  action  and 
condition,  and  before  considering,  therefore,  the 
more  highly  polished,  well-rounded,  completely 
formulated,  and  all  but  mummified  names  of  things, 
I  wish  to  return  to  some  of  the  more  primi- 
tive, the  more  live,  the  more  fundamental  words 
which  we  use  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  world, 
and  which,  alas,  like  others,  we  use  often  so  loosely 
and  so  carelessly  when,  with  a  clear  grasp  of  their 
meaning  we  might  discriminate  more  nicely — we 
might  spare  so  many  unnecessary,  useless  words — 
we  might  convey  an  accurate  and  definite  impres- 
sion. 

There  are  five  of  these  verbs  which  I  may  first 
name  together,  and  which  together  cover  the  whole 
field  of  charity :  To  need,  to  suffer,  to  feel,  to  give, 
to  help.  They  scarcely  need  definition,  but  will, 
perhaps,  bear  a  few  words  of  exposition.  It  is  be- 
cause there  are  those  who  need — that  is  to  say,  are 
without  the  things  which  nourish  and  clothe  and 
shelter,  and  because  it  comes  to  be  regarded  as 
unnatural  and  unendurable  that  any  should  really 
need  nourishment  and  protection — that  charity  is 
practised.  To  need,  however,  is  not  merely  to  be 
without.  It  is  also  to  suffer.  To  suffer  from  cold 
and  hunger  and  disease  arouses  directly  the 
impulse  on  the  part  of  the  neighbor  to  sympathize. 
But  sympathize  is  only  a  Greek  word  that  means  to 
suffer  with,  and  our  simpler  English  word  for  that 
is  to  feel.  To  feel  and  to  share  the  feelings  of  those 
who  suffer  and  are  in  need,  is  to  lay  the  foundation 


142  THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

for  the  practice  of  charity,  and  to  give  from  that 
which  one  has — whether  it  be  food,  or  clothing  or 
shelter,  or  service — is  to  begin  to  rear  the  super- 
structure. To  give  means  to  hand  over,  without 
reservation  and  without  price,  a  part  or  all  of  that 
which  one  has  to  the  one  who  needs  and  suffers. 
To  give  is  not  to  invest,  or  to  lend,  or  to  make  con- 
ditions— it  is  simply  and  absolutely  to  transfer  the 
ownership  and  use  of  that  which  is  needed  by  the 
one  and  is  in  the  possession  of  the  other,  whether  it 
be  needed  by  him  or  not. 

But  to  need  and  to  suffer,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
to  feel  and  to  give,  on  the  other,  are  not  yet  charity, 
though  they  are  the  four  strong  pillars  of  the  struc- 
ture. There  is  a  fifth  strong,  nervy,  necessary  little 
verb,  which  I  may  call  the  walls  and  the  finish, 
inside  and  out,  above  and  beneath,  for  it  is  the  whole 
of  charity,  and  without  it  there  is  no  charity,  and 
that  verb  is,  as  you  will  have  seen,  to  help.  Unless 
that  which  passes  from  one  to  the  other,  whether  it 
be  goods  or  service,  helps,  it  does  not  make  a  genu- 
inely charitable  bond  between  them.  For  one  to 
help  another  there  must  be  feeling,  and  there  must 
be  giving,  but  the  giving  must  be  so  well  chosen, 
so  timely,  so  generous,  and  so  intelligent,  that  it 
helps,  that  it  mitigates  or  removes  the  suffering  and 
meets  the  need.  The  nature  of  the  one  must  be  so 
attuned  to  that  of  the  other  that  there  is  harmony 
and  accord. 

With  a  firm  grasp  upon  these  five  simple  verbs: 
To  need,  to  suffer,  to  feel,  to  give,  to  help,  the  whole 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  143 

philosophy  of  relief  and  the  practice  of  charity  are 
mastered,  and  the  study  of  the  longer  and  more 
technical  verbs  and  nouns  is  but  a  development  and 
application  of  what  one  already  knows.  But  who 
can  grasp  the  meaning  of  these  simple  verbs  unless 
he  has  himself  suffered ;  unless  he  has  himself  felt ; 
and  who  can  undertake  to  say  that  he  is  prepared 
to  give — even  that  which  is  his  own,  much  less  that 
which  he  gives  on  behalf  of  another — in  such  a  way 
that  his  giving  will  really  help  those  who  need — 
unless  he  has,  with  an  open  mind,  studied  the 
attempts  which  others  have  made  through  the  cen- 
turies, and  unless,  with  an  appreciative  understand- 
ing, he  familiarizes  himself  with  the  methods  which 
the  best  who  are  at  work  for  those  who  need,  are 
thinking  out  and  putting  into  practice  ? 

There  is  a  second  class  of  these  verbs,  which  we 
may  likewise  consider  together.  To  relieve,  to  pre- 
vent, to  eliminate,  to  reconstruct,  to  co-operate,  to 
organize.  To  relieve,  in  a  very  common,  but  to  my 
mind  very  objectionable  use  of  the  word,  means  to 
give  so  much  of  food,  or  shelter,  or  clothing,  or 
money,  as  will  satisfy  immediate  physical  needs.  To 
give  relief  in  this  acceptation  of  the  term,  is  to  hand 
over  a  minimum  supply  of  the  necessities  of  life,  in 
order  that  one  may  not  at  the  moment  suffer  from 
hunger  or  cold.  As  I  have  already  defined  the 
word,  this  is,  properly  speaking,  to  give;  but  it  is 
Inot  to  give  relief,  as  the  workers  in  the  field  of  char- 
ity should  come  to  understand  the  word  relief.  To 
\relieve  is  rather  to  effect  a  change,  to  give  so  much, 


144  THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

and  in  such  a  way  as  to  completely  remove  the 
necessity  from  which  the  one  who  thus  obtains 
relief  had  been  suffering.  To  relieve,  then,  is  to 
give  that  which  meets  the  need,  and  to  give  it  in 
such  amounts,  and  with  such  careful  adaptation  of 
means  to  ends,  as  will  tend  to  remove  the  cause  of 
the  suffering.  A  helpless,  aged  person,  who  is 
homeless  and  friendless,  is  relieved  when  he  is 
placed  in  a  suitable  home  for  the  aged,  or  placed  at 
board  in  a  private  family  or  a  boarding  house,  and 
the  means  provided  to  pay  indefinitely  for  his  board. 
The  family  of  a  widow  with  small  children  is 
relieved  when  a  pension  is  provided  sufficient  in 
amount  adequately  to  supplement  the  possible  earn- 
ings of  the  mother  or  the  wage-earning  children.  A 
sick  patient,  who  cannot  be  properly  cared  for  at 
home,  is  relieved  when  removed  to  a  hospital,  or 
more  completely  when  cured  and  restored  to  his 
home ;  but  to  give  once,  in  amounts  which  have  no 
relation  to  the  need,  and  in  things  that  have  no  cura- 
tive quality,  is  not  relief.  I  do  not  know  what  to 
call  it — alms,  perhaps — since  that  is  a  word  that  we 
appear  to  have  the  least  use  for,  and  it  does  seem 
necessary  to  have  some  word  for  the  giving  which 
has  no  defense. 

To  prevent,  in  the  field  of  charity,  is  better  than 
to  relieve.  It  means  to  go  before,  to  anticipate,  to 
take  effective  measures  in  anticipation.  Preventive 
work  in  charity  usually  begins  after  there  has  at 
least  once  been  necessity  for  relief,  and  it  is  better 
that  it  should  begin  then,  than  not  at  all.  In  an 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   CHARITY  145 

ideal  state  of  society,  the  potentially  charitable 
neighbor  will  be  so  close  to  the  potentially  needy 
neighbor  that  preventive  work  may  begin  before 
there  is  extreme  need;  before  there  is  great  suffer- 
ing; before  there  is  an  opportunity  to  relieve,  save 
as  it  is  a  relief  from  danger.  Preventive  social 
work  has,  in  some  fields,  reached  this  stage  alread}?. 
Playgrounds,  recreation  centers,  clubs,  kindergar- 
tens, schools  and  libraries  take  the  place  of  asylums 
and  reformatories  and  distributions  of  fuel,  cloth- 
ing and  money.  To  prevent,  in  child  saving,  is  to 
provide  better  parental  care ;  to  remove  undue  temp- 
tations ;  to  deal  wisely  with  those  who  are  showing 
their  first  inclinations  to  become  wayward,  after 
reaching  the  age  of  responsibility.  To  prevent,  in 
the  conduct  of  institutions  for  children,  is  so  to 
organize  the  entire  life  of  the  child  within  the  insti- 
tution— study,  work,  play — as  to  accomplish  in  the 
shortest  possible  period  the  task  of  discipline  for 
which  the  institution  is  intended,  and  to  fit  the 
child  into  a  normal  place  in  the  community — 
whether  with  kindred  or  with  strangers — and  so  to 
influence  those  outside  the  institution,  as  to  keep 
within  reasonable  limits  the  number  for  whom  insti- 
tutional care  must  be  provided.  It  is  not  the  insti- 
tution that  we  are  to  prevent,  for  the  institution  also 
has  its  place  in  a  rational  preventive  social  scheme, 
but  superfluous  population  in  institutions,  and  an 
undue  length  of  residence  in  institutions,  and  reten- 
tion in  an  institution,  either  without  real  benefit,  or 
with  positive  injury — these  things  we  are  to  pre- 


146  THE   PRACTICE   OF   CHARITY 

vent,  and  it  is  upon  the  managers  of  institutions 
and  the  workers  in  them  that  the  responsibility  for 
this  prevention  primarily  rests. 

To  prevent,  in  dealing  with  families  in  their 
homes,  is  to  war  against  intemperance,  disease, 
unsanitary  conditions ;  to  work  for  a  wholesome 
family  life;  for  thrift  and  industry  and  sane  living. 
To  prevent,  in  the  care  of  the  criminal,  is  to  estab- 
lish reformatories  for  early  offenders;  to  introduce 
classification  and  sound  discipline;  to  abolish  the 
jail,  and  reform  the  prison,  and  to  do  away  with  the 
attempt  to  adjust  fixed  term  sentences  to  particular 
crimes. 

I  have  said  that  to  prevent  is  better  than  to  relieve, 
but  there  is  a  word  that  I  like  better  than  either — 
and  that  is  to  eliminate.  I  wish  there  were  a  single 
Saxon  word  for  it,  but  there  is  not,  possibly  because 
when  our  Saxon  forefathers  were  shaping  their  lan- 
guage the  things  which  we  need  to  eliminate  were 
unknown.  It  is  exactly  the  kind  of  an  idea  which, 
if  they  had  had  necessity  for  the  thing  itself,  they 
would  have  had  to  describe  it  a  vigorous,  brief, 
expressive  and  convincing  word.  It  means  to  get 
rid  of ;  to  root  out ;  to  put  beyond  our  threshold  or 
limits  as  injurious,  undesirable,  and  unnecessary. 
We  have,  for  example,  eliminated  small-pox  from 
among  our  prevalent  diseases,  and  are  in  the  process 
of  eliminating  diphtheria,  and  shall  shortly  eliminate 
tuberculosis.  We  are  eliminating  street  begging, 
for  which  professional  essayists  like  Charles  Lamb 
and  Agnes  Repplier  find  something  to  say  in 


THE  PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY  147 

defense,  but  which  others  know  to  be  hideous, 
and  injurious,  and  in  every  way  undesirable.  To 
set  our  faces  towards  the  helpful  tasks  of  eliminat- 
ing the  things  which  undermine  the  health  of  the 
people,  and  the  things  which  undermine  the  char- 
acter of  the  people,  is  as  much  an  advance  upon  pre- 
ventive work,  as  ordinarily  interpreted,  as  this,  in 
turn,  is  an  advance  upon  relief  work,  as  it  has  been 
ordinarily  understood.  But  that  is  not  to  disparage 
either  relief  or  prevention. 

To  Relieve,  in  the  real  sense,  is  an  inspiring  and 
satisfying  task.    To  prevent  is  equally  so,  and  it  has 
the  advantage  that  in  some  of  its  aspects  it  may  be    j 
undertaken  by  those  to  whom  actual  relief  may  be   \ 
so  painful,  or  so  difficult,  as  to  be  impossible.     To  \ 
eliminate  the  evils  in  which  need  and  suffering  have 
their  roots  is,  in  its  broadest  aspects,    a    task    for  , 
statesmen,  but  in  many  of  its  minor  applications 
there  are  possibilities  for  every  worker  who,  in  an 
institution  or  in  the  homes  of  the  poor,  comes  into 
contact  either  with  need,  or  with  its  by-products. 

Akin  to  this  good  Latin  word  to  eliminate,  there 
is  another — to  reconstruct.  This  word  stands  for 
an  equally  thoroughgoing  and  radical  idea.  The  re 
means  "over  again,"  and  that  may  suggest  some- 
thing only  half  satisfactory,  an  undertaking  upon 
which  one  enters  too  late;  but  in  this  instance  it  is 
the  remainder  of  the  word  that  counts.  What  we 
are  to  do  over  again  is  to  construct,  to  build — to 
build  again  from  the  beginning,  to  put  into  orderly 
arrangement  that  which  has  been  disarranged  or 


148  THE  PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

badly  arranged ;  to  bring  together  again  the  various 
elements  of  good  which,  it  may  be,  have  been  broken 
up  or  destroyed  by  some  outside  influences.  There 
is  something  about  the  word  which  suggests  thor- 
oughness and  the  doing  successfully  of  that  which 
has  previously  been  botched  and  badly  done.  To 
reconstruct  means  often  to  introduce  some  new  and 
desirable  element.  When,  for  example,  we  recon- 
struct a  house,  it  gives  the  opportunity  for  the  intro- 
duction of  electric  lights ;  for  a  better  drainage  sys- 
tem ;  for  safer  chimney  flues ;  for  a  better  outlook. 
To  reconstruct  the  character  of  a  child;  to  recon- 
struct the  shattered  home ;  to  reconstruct  an  institu- 
tion which  has  fallen  short  of  its  object;  to  recon- 
struct a  municipal  department  which  has  been  ineffi- 
cient and  corrupt;  to  reconstruct  the  state,  here  a 
little,  there  a  little,  by  reconstructing  the  particular 
thing  in  which  we  are  engaged — can  there  be  a  more 
inspiring  program  than  that  ? 

There  is  another  toothsome  word,  with  sugges- 
tions similar  to  that  of  reconstruction,  and  that  is 
regeneration.  It  is  a  word  which  we  have  left  too 
much  to  theologians  and  to  missionaries,  but  they  are 
no  longer  to  have  the  word  in  undisputed  posses- 
sion. In  biology,  where  it  is  now  being  used,  and  in 
the  social  field,  regeneration  may  not  mean  precisely 
a  new  birth,  as  it  does  in  the  religious  field;  but  it 
means  the  replacement  of  some  vital  organ,  or  of 
some  vital  quality;  of  some  essential  feature  of  the 
physical  or  the  spiritual  nature.  The  mere  fact  that 
among  the  lower  forms  of  life  an  organ  which  is 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   CHARITY  149 

torn  away  may  be  replaced,  is  of  significance  to  us 
for  our  present  purposes,  since  there  appears  to  be  a 
tendency  in  the  higher  forms  of  life  to  replace  that 
which  is  torn  away  by  something  which  is  better. 
Regeneration,  then,  means  the  replacement  or  sub- 
stitution of  some  characteristic  or  quality — the 
capacity  for  self-support  it  may  be ;  the  capacity  for 
being  law-abiding;  for  being  useful  to  others — for 
characteristics  of  an  opposite  kind.  Regeneration  of 
the  physical  and  the  spiritual  nature  is  the  primary 
task  of  education,  of  religion,  and  of  charity.  It 
would  be  well  if  the  word  reform  were  ordinarily, 
like  reconstruct  or  regenerate,  pronounced  in  such 
a  way — re-form — as  to  give  it  a  similar  touch  of  its 
real  meaning,  or  of  its  possible  meaning.  To  reform 
a  criminal  or  a  drunkard  ordinarily,  unfortunately, 
suggests  to  us  temporary  improvement — something 
at  which  the  sneer  is  often  leveled — a  pretense  or  a 
feeble  attempt,  rather  than  a  genuine  reconstruction. 
At  best  it  is  a  technical  expression  on  which  people 
may  range  themselves — as  in  civil  service  reform, 
housing  reform,  ballot  reform,  municipal  reform — 
on  either  side,  and  may  cast  their  votes  against  that 
which  is  described  as  reform,  without  feeling  that 
they  have  particularly  compromised  themselves 
except  in  the  eyes  of  the  "reformers" — that  is  to  say, 
merely  of  those  who  have  voted  only  on  the  other 
side ;  and  so,  although  reform  undoubtedly  signifies 
to  amend  what  is  vicious  or  defective  or  corrupt, 
although  it  means  to  go  from  worse  to  better,  it  will 
be  safer — if  we  do  use  the  word — to  use  it  with 


150  THE  PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

such  emphasis  and  with  such  context  as  will  indicate 
whether  we  mean  something  radical  and  something 
worth  while,  or  merely  a  change  on  the  surface  or  in 
minor  particulars. 

Two  other  words  of  this  class  of  which  we  are 
speaking  require  brief  explanation :  to  co-operate 
and  to  organise.  It  appears  that  public  sentiment,  in 
the  charitable  field  in  general,  is  more  favorable  to 
the  first  of  these  words  than  to  the  second.  It  sounds 
more  friendly-like  and  neighborly.  To  co-operate 
means,  in  this  acceptation  of  the  term,  to  attend  each 
other's  meetings ;  to  speak  when  you  meet  on  the 
street;  to  adopt  joint  resolutions,  and  occasionally 
to  sign  together  statements  for  the  press,  or  for  use4 
elsewhere;  not  to  cut  each  other's  throats  or  stab 
each  other  in  the  back ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  to  say 
pleasant  things  about  each  other.  I  am  in  favor  of 
this  kind  of  co-operation,  and  am  quite  as  ready  as 
anyone  to  work  for  it  when  it  has  not  been  secured. 
It  is  elementary — by  which  it  is  not  meant  that  it 
exists  in  a  primitive  state  of  society,  or  that  it  comes 
of  itself  inevitably — but  rather  that  in  our  commu- 
nities in  the  enlightened  twentieth  century,  it 
ought  now  to  be  taken  for  granted.  To  co-operate, 
in  the  sense  of  working  together  amicably  as  indi- 
viduals and  as  societies  or  institutions,  clearly  ought 
to  be  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  society  or 
the  individual  who  refuses  to  co-operate  in  this  sense 
simply  puts  himself  in  the  position  of  a  boor  in  polite 
society,  or  an  outlaw  on  the  borders  of  civilization. 
Polite  society  and  civilization  manage  respectively 


THE  PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

to  get  along  without  the  boor  and  the  outlaw,  and 
the  disagreeable  consequences  fall  not  chiefly  upon 
civilization  and  society.  To  co-operate,  however, 
may  be  given  a  more  positive  meaning.  As  we 
become  more  civilized,  and  more  charitable,  more 
keenly  alive  to  the  opportunities  of  the  hour — we  dis- 
cover that  there  is  something  more  in  co-operation 
than  formal  relations ;  that  it  means  a  mutual  under- 
standing of  the  point  of  view  of  each  other,  achieved 
through  struggle  and  discusssion  and  possible  mis- 
understanding— that  it  means  a  common  program ; 
the  awakening  to  a  new,  more  democratic,  more  fra- 
ternal, more  just  ideal  by  which  even  reasonably  co- 
operative societies  must,  in  the  new  day,  be  judged, 
so  that  if  they  are  not  striving  to  attain  it,  they  shall 
be  reformed,  reconstructed,  or,  if  necessary,  elim- 
inated. Our  own  feeling  about  the  word  co-operate 
depends,  therefore,  upon  the  content  which  we  give 
it.  If  it  suggests  merely  superficial  and  polite  con- 
ventions, we  shall  give  it  our  languid  and  unenthu- 
siastic  enforcement.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it  means  a 
permeating  and  directing  influence,  leavening  our 
whole  attitude  toward  others  and  determining  our 
action  at  vital  points,  we  shall,  according  to  our 
natures,  either  fight  shy  of  it,  and  pursue  our  indi- 
vidual and  selfish  ways,  or  accept  it  as  zealous  dis- 
ciples, as  a  thing  worth  making  sacrifices  for,  as  a 
program  demanding  good  faith  and  candor  and  good 
will. 

The  final  word  in  this  group  which  we  are  now 
considering  is  one  which  has  caused  many  heartburn- 


152  THE   PRACTICE   OF    CHARITY 

ings  and  many  misunderstandings,  and  one  which, 
used  baldly  and  inaccurately,  rouses  instinctively  a 
touch  of  resentment.  This  is  the  verb  to  organize. 
The  Evening  Post,  in  an  able  and  extended  review 
of  the  Handbook  on  the  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis* 
pointed  out  that  there  is  still  a  widespread  idea  that 
charity,  when  organized,  becomes  the  activity  of 
busybodies  longing  to  improve  others,  seekers  of 
motes  while  forgetful  of  their  own  beams.  The 
writer  blames  the  workers  themselves  for  this  in  a 
measure,  saying  that  their  attitude  is  too  often  one 
of  superiority,  and  that  their  very  language  tends  to 
develop  phrases  which,  to  the  unregenerate  outsider, 
have  a  taint  of  cant./  The  reviewer  believes  that  the 
book  under  consideration,  dealing  with  "what  is  per- 
haps the  most  beneficent  and  promising  charitable 
work  ever  undertaken,"  should  do  much  to  lessen  or 
remove  this  prejudice.  We  are  not  now  dealing  with 
popular  prejudices,  but  rather  with  the  actual  mean- 
ing of  terms,  the  meaning  which  they  have  and 
should  have  in  our  daily  speech.  If  we  are  reason- 
able and  consistent  in  our  use  of  words  and  phrases, 
unregenerate  outsiders,  so  far  as  they  have  occasion 
to  notice  them,  will  have  respect  for  them,  and  will 
not  discover  in  them  any  taint  of  cant. 

To  organize  felief;  to  organize  charity;  to  organ- 
ize a  social  movement  does  not  imply  superiority, 
although  it  does  imply  capacity  for  doing  the  partic- 


'Published  by  the  New  York  Charity   Organization    So- 
ciety. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY  153 

ular  thing  that  is  to  be  done.  To  give  relief  implies 
that  one  is  in  a  superior,  or  at  least  a  more  fortunate 
position,  than  the  one  who  is  in  need  of  the  relief. 
To  organize  relief  that  is  supplied  from  various 
sources,  to  decide  how  much  is  needed,  and  in  what 
forms,  and  at  what  times — and  then  to  give  it — 
implies  that  one  is  in  a  different  position  from  the 
one  who  gives  relief  alone.  It  is,  in  a  sense,  a 
superior  position,  in  that  it  implies  professional 
capacity  which  may  or  may  not  be  present  when  one 
merely  himself  gives  relief,  although  if  the  giver 
really  gives  relief,  in  the  sense  in  which  I  have 
already  described  it,  he  has,  at  least,  a  latent  capacity 
for  professional  service. 

To  organize  a  charity  also  implies  something  more 
than  to  contribute  subsequently  to  its  support,  or 
even  to  direct  its  activities.  It  implies  a  knowledge 
as  to  whether  there  is  a  need  for  the  charity ;  of  the 
form  that  it  should  take ;  of  the  manner  in  which  it 
should  appeal  for  its  support ;  of  the  kind  of  workers 
that  are  required,  and  a  score  of  other  things  which 
may  or  may  not  be  needed  at  a  later  stage.  To 
organize  a  social  movement  implies  a  high  order  of 
executive  capacity,  a  knowledge  of  affairs,  a  social 
sympathy,  an  intelligent  grasp  of  problems  often 
complicated  and  perplexing.  It  is  no  task  for  a 
crank,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  for  a  man  without 
imagination.  When  relief,  or  charities,  or  social 
movements,  therefore,  are  organized,  something  is 
accomplished  which,  when  understood  by  the  pub- 
lic, will  be  respected  and  approved,  unless  there 


154  THE  PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

creeps  in  some  unnecessary  absurdity  or  inconsist- 
ency or  accidental  characteristic. 

Organization  is  not  mechanicalization.  It  is  not 
hardness  of  heart.  It  does  not  lead  to  the  discour- 
agement of  the  charity  which  feels  and  gives  and 
helps.  On  the  contrary,  to  organize  is  to  bring  some 
order  into  what  is  chaos  and  confusion.  It  is  to  pro- 
mote mutual  understanding,  personal  sympathy, 
effective  help.  In  order  to  organize,  it  is  necessary 
to  get  to  the  bottom.  It  is  necessary  to  know.  It  is 
often  necessary  to  reconstruct  and  to  regenerate.  It 
is  necessary  to  eliminate  that  which  is  vicious  and 
corrupt.  It  is  necessary  to  reform  that  which  is  bad 
and  inefficient.  It  is  necessary  to  relieve  on  a  con- 
sistent and  intelligent  plan.  To  organize  the  dis- 
ordered affairs  of  a  family  which  has  been  an  eco- 
nomic failure  requires  brains  and  experience  and 
skill.  It  is  a  task  in  which  there  is  a  place  for  sym- 
pathy, and  for  faith,  and  for  hope,  and  for  love. 
When  to  these  are  added  a  knowledge  of  resources 
and  the  fruits  of  experience,  all  of  which  may  be 
summed  up  in  professional  skill,  it  is  fortunate  for 
the  one  for  whom  relief  is  required.  There  is  no 
cant,  and  nothing  for  which  it  is  necessary  to  apolo- 
gize in  the  work  of  organizing  relief,  as  it  is  thus 
conceived.  To  give  relief  stupidly,  without  any  per- 
sonal concern  for  the  mind  and  the  character,  is  not 
to  earn  the  blessing  promised  to  him  that  "considereth  I 
the  poor."  To  organize  relief,  which  includes  the 
final  act  by  which  alone  the  organization  is  justified, 
viz.,  the  giving  of  the  relief,  is,  therefore,  the  most  j 


THE  PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY  155 

complete  and  accurate  expression  for  that  which 
relief  agencies  and  charitable  individuals  are  under- 
taking. 

*<A.  charity  organization  society  exists  in  any  com- 
munity, as  its  name  implies,  for  the  purpose  of 
organizing  charity  in  that  community.  Charity  is 
a  broad  term,  and  includes  both  what  one  individual 
does  for  the  benefit  of  another,  and  what  the  com- 
munity, through  its  public  and  private  institutions 
and  societies,  does  for  the  poor.  A  charity  organiza- 
tion society,  therefore,  works  both  at  bringing  about 
a  more  complete  adjustment  of  charitable  resources 
in  general  to  charitable  needs,  and  it  helps  individual 
citizens,  who  are  charitably  inclined,  to  give  relief 
effectively,  aiming  in  these  ways  to  supplement 
methods  which  are  parts  of  one  consistent,  compre- 
hensive program;  to  improve  the  condition  of  the 
poor;  to  improve  the  charitable  system  of  the  com- 
munity, and  to  improve  the  quality  of  the  work 
which  is  done,  whether  by  individuals,  or  by  charita- 
ble agencies,  or  by  authority  of  the  state. 

I  desire  next  to  place  in  contrast  certain  terms 
which  are  increasingly  in  general  use,  and  upon 
which  it  is  essential  that  social  workers  should  have 
their  ideas  sharply  defined.  The  first  of  these  terms 
are  health  and  sickness — or  perhaps  it  might  be  bet- 
ter to  say,  from  our  particular  point  of  view,  wage- 
earning  capacity  and  physical  disability.  When  is  a 
person  able-bodied — capable  of  earning  an  income 
sufficient  to  support  himself  and  those,  if  there  are 
any,  who  are  naturally  dependent  upon  him?  To 


156  THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

answer  this  question  in  an  individual  instance 
requires  often  the  professional  skill  of  a  physician, 
and  off-hand  judgments  that  a  man  is  able-bodied 
may  well  be  unjust  judgments;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  astounding  examples  of  long-continued,  fruit- 
ful and  successful  labor,  yielding  a  large  margin  on 
the  side  of  self-support,  and  the  support  of  family,  is 
often  found  where  even  the  physician  would  say  that 
one  is  completely  lacking  in  the  capacity  to  perform 
it.  Physical  disability  constitutes  at  once  a  claim 
upon  sympathy  and,  when  other  than  charitable 
sources  of  aid  fail,  upon  charitable  relief.  But  with 
the  progress  of  science  and  the  newer  outlook  we 
are  less  and  less  inclined  to  accept  any  condition  of 
disease  or  physical  disability  as  irremediable.  We 
are  more  and  more  inclined  to  raise  the  inquiry 
whether  sickness  cannot  be  transformed  into  health ; 
whether  physical  incapacity  cannot  be  itself  relieved ; 
whether  prevention,  elimination,  reconstruction, 
cannot  have  a  larger  place,  so  that  the  disagreeable 
necessity  of  looking  to  others  for  that  which  it  is  a 
greater  satisfaction  to  earn  for  one's  self,  cannot  be 
obviated.  Our  purpose,  however,  is  only  to  call 
attention  clearly  to  the  distinction  between  health 
and  sickness,  and  to  insist  that  any  other  than  a 
healthy,  vigorous  physical  condition  be  looked  upon 
as  something  to  be  remedied ;  something  to  tolerate 
only  for  the  very  shortest  possible  period ;  some- 
thing for  which  the  responsibility  should  be  located ; 
something  for  which  effective  relief — in  our  sense 
of  the  word — is  to  be  found. 


THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY  157 

We  may,  in  the  same  way,  contrast  maturity  and 
childhood,  drawing  the  line  between  them  for  our 
purposes  at  the  place  where  it  is  right  and  expedient 
that  growing  children  should  cease  to  be  looked 
upon  primarily  as  children,  and  may  be  regarded  as 
among  the  wage-earning  members  of  the  family; 
where  they  pass  over  from  the  stage  of  economic 
dependency  to  the  stage  in  which  they  contribute  to 
the  family  budget.  That  age  at  present  in  the  state 
of  New  York,  so  far  as  the  law  attempts  to  deter- 
mine the  matter,  is  fourteen.  Under  this  age,  chil- 
dren may  indeed  make  themselves  useful  so  far  as  is 
compatible  with  attending  school,  and  so  far  as  it 
is  not  directly  injurious  to  their  physical  welfare. 
The  tasks  at  which  they  are  set,  however,  are  rather 
for  the  purpose  of  training  and  inculcating  the  sense 
of  responsibility  and  the  habits  of  industry,  than 
for  direct  pecuniary  advantage.  Above  that  age 
there  are  still  many  who  are,  fortunately,  given  an 
opportunity  for  further  education,  or  who  are  put 
as  apprentices  at  trades  from  which  their  profit 
comes  in  training,  rather  than  in  wages ;  but  in  cases 
of  need — and  these  are  a  large  proportion — it  is 
recognized  that  if  a  minimum  of  knowledge  has 
been  acquired,  and  if  one  is  physically  fit  for  the 
v/ork  which  he  or  his  parents  wish  him  to  under- 
take, the  state  will  not  object  to  the  earning  of 
wages. 

The  lengthening  of  the  period  of  childhood  is  one 
of  the  most  positive  indications  of  progress  and  civ- 
ilization. It  has  been  the  means  of  increasing  the 


158  THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

efficiency  of  workers  during  their  working  period, 
of  lengthening  life,  of  preventing  accident  and  pre- 
mature physical  breakdown,  of  increasing  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  industrial  organization.  The  raising 
of  the  line  which  marks  off  maturity  from  childhood 
is  naturally  accompanied  by  compulsory  school  at- 
tendance, improvement  in  the  school  system,  and  by 
a  more  natural  organization  of  industry  in  which  the 
work  of  men  is  done  by  men,  and  the  right  of  the 
child  to  childhood  is  more  completely  recognized. 
Again  our  present  purpose,  however,  is  not  to  argue 
for  child-labor  laws,  or  for  compulsory  school 
attendance,  but  to  draw  sharply  the  distinction 
between  childhood  and  maturity  in  order  that, 
wherever  we  decide  for  ourselves  that  the  line  should 
be  placed,  we  shall  at  least  get  clear  of  the  confusion 
which  has  permeated  this,  and  all  similar  discus- 
sions. 

Our  final  contrast  is  between  the  social  debtor  and 
the  independent,  self-supporting,  self-respecting  cit- 
izen in  the  community.  Social  debtors  are  those 
who,  whether  indigent  or  wealthy,  contribute  noth- 
ing to  the  social  welfare  in  return  for  their  keep. 
There  are  many  of  these  who,  because  of  physical 
incapacity,  or  apparently  incurable  moral  defects, 
are  irreclaimable.  There  are  the  incurably  insane 
and  feeble-minded;  the  chronically  disabled.  There 
are  the  persistent  and  habitual  offenders  against  the 
criminal  law — although  in  the  progress  of  penology 
and  in  the  progress  of  science,  the  number 
of  the  incorrigible  and  of  the  incurably  in- 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   CHARITY  159 

sane  and  feeble-minded,  and  of  those  who  suffer 
from  what  have  been  regarded  as  chronic  diseases, 
is  being  measurably  reduced.  Unfortunately,  to  the 
class  of  social  debtors  we  must  add  many  more  than 
these — many  who  go  through  the  forms  of  working 
and  have  all  the  hardships  and  the  disadvantages  of 
working,  but  who,  from  inefficiency  or  shiftlessness 
or  depraved  appetites,  or  because  they  are  misfits  in 
the  particular  place  where  they  are,  are  also  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  social  debtors ;  because,  under 
the  conditions,  they  do  not  contribute  to  society  as 
much  as  they  draw  from  it.  The  difference  is  made 
up  either  in  wages  which  they  have  not  earned,  or  in 
the  wages  of  other  members  of  the  family,  of  which 
these  others  thus  fail  to  get  the  full  benefit,  or  by 
alms — which,  it  will  be  remembered,  are  not  to  be 
called  charitable  relief  unless  they  change  the  situa- 
tion ;  or  by  criminal  practices  on  a  petty  or  on  a  large 
scale.  It  would  be  too  large  a  task  to  consider  the  con- 
stituent elements  of  the  class  of  social  debtors  and 
their  remedies.  It  is  sufficient  to  draw  sharply  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  social  debtor,  on  the  one  hand — 
whom  we  are  not,  because  he  is  a  social  debtor,  to  de- 
spise or  to  look  down  upon,  but  whom  we  are  rather 
to  help,  and  if  possible,  to  reclaim — and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  one  who  is  a  member  in  good  and  regular 
standing  of  industrial  society,  of  the  social  com- 
munity. All  the  greater  credit  and  honor  to  the  one 
who  is  thus  a  creditor  rather  than  a  debtor  in  his 
relations  to  mankind,  if  he  is  handicapped  by  hered- 
ity, by  environment,  by  inherent  weakness,  and  if 


l6o  THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

overcoming  these  things,  either  in  himself  or  in  his 
children,  he  takes  his  place  with  those  who  give,  and 
not  with  those  who  receive;  with  those  who  help 
rather  than  with  those  who  need.  So  that  one  is 
not  necessarily  a  social  debtor  because  he  is  physi- 
cally disabled  or  incapacitated.  There  may  well  be  a 
large  credit  to  his  account  before  and  after  the 
period  of  his  disability,  or  in  spite  of  his  disability. 
He  may  be  accomplishing  things  which  put  the  able- 
bodied  to  shame  and,  if  so,  he  is  not  a  social  debtor, 
but  a  citizen  in  the  well  rounded  and  complete  sense 
of  that  dignified  word. 


XI.  THE  TEST  OF  A  GOOD  SOCIETY. 

The  purest  satisfaction  of  which  the  unperverted 
human  heart  is  capable  is  that  which  comes  from 
having  helped  a  fellow-being  who  is  in  need.  There 
are  legitimate  opportunities  for  such  help  on  every 
hand.  There  are  orphan  children  who  require  at 
the  hands  of  strangers  nurture  and  protection  and 
education — everything  that  a  helpless  infant  de- 
mands. There  are  the  sick,  who  above  all  things 
need  to  be  cured.  There  are  mothers,  widowed  or 
deserted,  or  otherwise  deprived  of  the  support  of 
the  natural  bread-winner  of  the  family,  and  the 
task  of  caring  for  their  children  and  at  the  same 
time  earning  their  support  is  often  greater — usually 
greater — than  they  can  perform.  There  are  the 
aged,  whose  opportunities  for  saving,  it  may  be, 
have  been  neglected,  and  there  are  those  for  whom 
any  real  opportunities  to  make  provision  for  old 
age  have  never  come.  And  then  there  are  those 
who  are  merely  unfortunate ;  whom  the  hand  of 
undeserved  and  unforeseen  misfortune  has  stricken, 
and  who  without  a  friendly  lift  are  likely  to  suffer 
far  beyond  their  deserts.  Neither  they  nor  their 
fathers  have  sinned,  but  they  are  blind,  nevertheless, 
or  disabled,  or  deprived  of  the  means  of  livelihood 
to  which  they  have  been  accustomed. 


l62  THE   PRACTICE   OF   CHARITY 

When  the  impulse  to  help  any  or  all  of  these 
classes  embodies  itself  in  a  charitable  society,  it 
becomes  a  fair  test  of  the  efficiency  and  the  vitality 
and  the  usefulness  of  such  a  society  to  inquire 
whether  the  sum  total  of  its  effect  upon  those  who 
participate  in  its  work  is  to  diminish  or  to  increase 
the  desire  to  help.  If  it  be  true  that  charity  is  the 
greatest  and  the  loveliest  of  the  three  graces,  then 
the  object  of  any  such  association  must  be  to  pro- 
mote charity,  to  increase  the  number  of  those  who 
believe  in  it  and  practice  it,  to  strengthen  its  hold 
upon  those  who  nominally  profess  to  believe  in  it, 
and  to  increase  the  faith  of  those  who  rely  upon  it 
as  a  force  for  good. 

It  is  possible  to  apply  this  test,  not  only  to  the 
members  and  contributors  of  the  society,  but  also 
to  its  officers  and  agents  and  committees.  We  may 
even  go  further  and  apply  it  also  to  its  bene- 
ficiaries; to  those  who  apply  for  help  and  whose 
relief  is  dependent  upon  the  action  of  the  society 
to  which  they  apply.  Let  us  consider  these  three 
different  groups  in  turn,  contributors,  workers,  bene- 
ficiaries. 

Does  the  one  who  contributes  to  the  charitable 
society  feel  that  he  is  taking  part  in  a  charitable,  a 
constructive,  a  really  vital  and  important  under- 
taking, or  is  he  merely  with  great  reluctance,  under 
personal,  social  or  business  pressure  of  some  kind, 
yielding  up  his  annual  donation?  Does  he  know 
something  of  what  is  being  done  with  his  money? 
Does  he  look  over  its  report?  Does  he  feel  a  modi- 


THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY  163 

cum  of  personal  pride,  when  he  sees  in  the  news- 
papers or  hears  from  the  public  platform  some  indi- 
cation of  its  activity,  or  some  evidence  of  its  suc- 
cess? Does  he  make  his  contribution  to  the  society 
an  excuse  for  refusing  to  contribute  to  other  worthy 
ends,  or  does  he  so  much  enjoy  the  experience  of 
having  had  a  part  in  the  one  thing  that  he  is  the 
more  ready  to  undertake  others?  Does  he  value 
the  services  which  the  society  is  ready  to  perform 
for  him?  Does  he  make  use  of  its  facilities?  Does 
he  mention  to  his  friends  what  a  return  he  is  get- 
ting from  his  investment,  and,  above  all,  does  he 
feel  deep  down  in  his  heart  that  some  poor  family 
which  he  has  referred  to  the  society  is  getting  just 
that  kind  of  loving,  sympathetic,  considerate,  and 
efficient  help  that  they  ought  to  have?  And  does 
he  stand  ready,  if  the  circumstances  are  such  as  to 
call  for  it,  to  supplement  what  the  society  can  do, 
by  direct  personal  contributions  of  money  and  ser- 
vice? If,  as  the  years  go  by,  contributors  show 
increasingly  such  qualities  and  characteristics  as 
these,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  society  is  working  on 
the  right  line  and  that  it  has  within  itself  the  ele- 
ments of  permanence  and  of  growth. 

We  need  not  flinch  from  applying  similar  tests  to 
the  directors,  the  committees,  the  officers,  and  the 
employes  of  a  society  whose  work  requires  thus  much 
of  organization.  Is  it  apparent,  after  long  observa- 
tion, that  they  are  working  for  glory,  for  pay;  that 
they  are  working  perfunctorily,  by  routine  methods ; 
that  they  are  becoming  hard-hearted,  unsympathetic, 


164  THE   PRACTICE   OF   CHARITY 

uncharitable,  or  that  they  are  going  on  from  inertia 
merely  because  at  some  time  in  the  distant  past 
there  was  an  initial  impulse  which  has  not  yet  en- 
tirely died  out?  If  you  see  these  results,  you  may 
be  sure  that  there  is  something  radically  wrong  with 
the  society,  either  in  its  administration,  or  in  its 
underlying  idea.  The  effect  upon  the  worker  of 
taking  part,  whether  on  a  volunteer  or  on  a  profes- 
sional basis,  in  a  progressive,  genuinely  charitable 
society,  is  to  make  him  more  charitable,  more  open  to 
any  just  demands  upon  his  sympathy,  more  ready  to 
give  to  every  new  applicant  the  benefit  of  every 
doubt,  the  unprejudiced  hearing  of  an  open  mind.  If 
one  becomes  hard,  severe,  callous,  it  is  not  because 
continuous  contact  with  the  poor  necessarily  has  that 
result,  but  because  there  was  an  inherent  strain  of 
callousness,  harshness,  and  uncharitableness  in  the 
original  make-up  of  the  worker  in  question.  And 
it  is  a  fair  test  of  the  value  of  any  society,  whether 
its  officers  and  the  paid  employes  are  able  to  remain 
and  to  become  increasingly  broad-minded,  tender- 
hearted, and  humane. 

But  hardest  of  all,  and  yet  fairest  of  all,  is  the 
test  which  we  apply  when  we  notice  what  the  effect 
is  of  our  activities  upon  the  poor  themselves.  What 
is  the  effect  upon  their  character?  Have  they  be- 
come suspicious,  crafty,  wheedling,  deceptive ;  and 
have  they  lost  all  capacity  for  self-reliance  as  a  result 
of  their  contact  with  the  charitable  agency?  Has 
their  economic  position  improved  ?  Is  their  physical 
health  better?  Have  they  had  more  and  better  edu- 


THE   PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY  165 

cational  advantages  and  have  they  made  better  use 
of  them  ?  What  do  the  records  show  in  the  way  of 
positive  evidence  that  there  has  been  real  improve- 
ment in  their  living  conditions,  in  their  housing  con- 
ditions, in  their  social  conditions?  Are  there  evi- 
dences of  these  things,  or  is  the  only  information,  so 
far  as  the  case  records  show,  some  single  doubtful 
phrase  that  they  appear  grateful,  or,  perchance, 
oftener  still,  that  they  appear  ungrateful? 

These  tests  are  applicable  not  only  to  a  charity  or- 
ganization society,  but  to  any  charitable  agency ;  and 
it  may  be  suggested,  in  passing,  that  it  is  apt  to  be  a 
little  easier  to  apply  them  to  almost  any  other  society 
than  to  the  particular  one  with  which  we  may  hap- 
pen to  be  connected. 

When  it  comes  to  a  statement  of  the  principles 
on  which  a  charitable  society  should  be  established 
and  conducted,  in  order  to  insure  meeting  these 
tests  successfully,  it  is  necessary  to  be  more  specific, 
since  those  principles  necessarily  differ  among  insti- 
tutions and  agencies  of  different  kinds.  A  society 
which  has  to  do  with  the  poor  in  their  homes,  to  meet 
them,  must  stand  first  for  charity ;  for  the  giving  of 
help  where  it  is  needed;  for  the  giving  of  help 
in  sufficient  amounts,  not  mechanically  and  in  arbi- 
trary sums  or  by  cast-iron  rules,  but  with  reference 
to  the  particular  needs  of  the  family.  If  there  is 
any  one  thing  that  will  be  more  certain  than  another 
to  prove  fatal  to  the  persistence  of  the  charitable 
spirit,  it  is  any  such  policy  as  the  giving  of  grocery 
orders  of  a  fixed  amount,  such  as  a  dollar  a  week, 


1 66  THE  PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY 

to  every  family,  regardless  of  its  needs;  or  the 
rule  that  at  a  certain  given  time  in  the  year  coal 
will  be  supplied  to  practically  everybody  that  asks 
for  it;  or  the  rule  that  rent  will  not  be  paid  under 
any  circumstances;  or  the  rule  that  nothing  what- 
ever will  be  done  for  homeless  men;  or  the  rule 
that  no  help  will  be  given  to  people  who  have  not 
lived  long  enough  in  the  community  to  gain  a  resi- 
dence; or  the  rule  that  no  help  will  be  given  to 
female  persons  under  five  feet  six  inches  in  height. 
It  is  true  that  no  society  has  adopted  this  last  rule, 
but  it  is  essentially  like  the  others,  and  all  of  the 
others  are  exceedingly  familiar.  The  formulation  of 
definite  principles  of  relief  is  necessary.  There 
is  no  course  more  dangerous  than  to  announce 
that  there  shall  be  no  principles  and  no  rules, 
and  that  relief  will  be  given  in  each  instance 
according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  particular  case. 
But  the  principles  should  have  some  reason,  else 
they  are  no  principles ;  and  the  rules  governing  the 
distribution  of  relief  must  not  be  mere  rules  of 
thumb,  designed  to  economize  thinking  on  the  part 
of  the  one  who  is  responsible.  Every  inquiry  into 
the  needs  of  a  particular  family,  every  plan  formec 
for  its  benefit,  every  dollar  or  article  given  for  its 
relief  should  be  constructive  and  should  fit  into  a 
positive  policy  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  of  the  com- 
munity. Only  in  this  way  can  it  be  educational  to 
the  donor  and  to  the  family ;  only  in  this  way  can  it 
keep  alive  and  foster  the  charitable  spirit.  Such 
relief  is  not  tiding  the  poor  over  into  next  week's 


THE  PRACTICE  OF   CHARITY  167 

misery,  but  on  the  contrary,  is  an  effective  and  prac- 
ticable means  of  leading  and  driving  them  out  of  it. 
The  societies  which  care  for  the  poor  in  their 
homes  stand,  however,  not  only  for  charity,  but  also 
for  organized  charity,  that  is  to  say: 

(1)  For  action  based  on  real  knowledge  of  the 
essential  facts,  rather  than  on  the  mere  superficial 
indications. 

(2)  For  co-operation  among  the  various   indi- 
viduals and  agencies  who  have  some  legitimate  in- 
terest in  the  particular  applicant. 

(3)  For  personal  oversight  that  shall  remove  or 
minimize  the  dangers  which  are  recognized  to  be 
present  in  all  relief  giving,  especially  from  strangers. 

These  I  take  to  be  the  three  fundamental  charac- 
teristics of  organized  charity, — knowledge,  co-opera- 
tion and  personal  oversight.  Other  things  which  we 
usually  associate  with  organized  charity  are  only 
instruments  to  the  end.  The  statement  taken  down 
in  writing,  the  visit  to  the  home  of  the  applicant, 
the  making  of  a  permanent  record,  the  exchange 
of  information,  the  local  district  committee  or  con- 
ference, the  woodyard,  the  workrooms,  the  encour- 
agement of  small  savings,  the  charities  conference, 
and  all  the  rest,  are  found  to  be  useful  means — more 
or  less  essential  means — to  accomplish  the  result. 
But  if  we  have  the  fundamentals — knowledge  of  the 
facts,  co-operatior  and  personal  service — we  need 
have  no  concern  because  there  is  diversity  in  the 
means  employed. 


XII.  SOME  ILLUSTRATIVE  PROBLEMS 

THE  following  condensed  statements  are  all  re- 
produced without  essential  change  from  the  records 
of  one  of  the  charity  organization  societies.  Only 
the  names  have  been  modified.  The  necessity  for 
brevity  has  often  robbed  the  history  of  picturesque 
and  interesting  details,  and  no  attempt  has  been 
made  to  describe  in  full,  or  in  several  instances  to 
state  at  all  what  has  actually  been  done  by  the  char- 
ity organization  society  or  by  others  to  relieve  the 
distress,  improve  the  condition  or  character,  or  pre- 
vent the  recurrent  dependence.  The  object  in  short 
is  not  to  illustrate  the  achievements  or  the  methods 
of  charitable  agencies,  but  to  illustrate  the  problem 
which  confront  them  and  which  every  individual  whc 
tries  to  help  the  destitute  will  also  encounter.  Th< 
appended  queries  will  it  is  hoped  aid  in  making  even 
more  apparent  how  diverse  and  often  how  difficul 
those  problems  are. 


Thomas   Saunders,   a  druggist,   thirty-five  years 
\   old,  living  with  his  mother,  lost  his  situation  repeat- 
edly  through    intemperance.     The   mother   persist 
ently  excused  the  son's  faults  and  because  of  his  idl< 
ness  frequently  asked  for  assistance.     Although  Ro 
168 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  169 

man  Catholics,  mother  and  son  were  frequently 
aided  by  Protestant  churches.  Conferences  of  the 
Society  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  also  aided.  Within 
one  year  a  general  relief  society  gave  groceries  and 
money  to  the  amount  of  $27.00,  having  already  aided 
on  two  occasions  four  and  thirteen  years  earlier.  In 
1898  the  son  disappeared  for  a  time,  during  which 
period  his  mother  died  and  was  buried  in  the  Pot- 
ter's Field.  Thomas  now  applies  for  assistance  to 
a  Protestant  relief  society. 

Queries:  Ought  this  society  to  aid?  Assuming 
that  a  proper  investigation  reveals  no  essential  facts 
except  those  stated,  was  the  assistance  given  by 
Protestant  churches  justified?  Was  that  given  by 
the  general  relief  society  justified?  Would  you  ex- 
pect to  attack  such  cases  in  general  by  moral  and  re- 
ligious influence ;  by  temperance  legislation ;  by  giv- 
ing relief;  by  withholding  relief;  by  publication  of 
the  facts ;  by  social  or  economic  revolution ;  or  by 
allowing  evolutionary  forces  to  destroy  the  classes 
of  whom  Thomas  and  his  mother  are  types? 


Mrs.  Emma  Siebel  is  a  widow  forty-nine  years  old 
with  three  daughters  twelve,  ten  and  five  years  re- 
spectively. On  her  husband's  death  over  a  year  ago 
Mrs.  Siebel  invested  what  money  she  had  in  a  small 
store  which  was  not  successful  because  of  credit 
sales  and  consequent  bad  debts.  Before  marriage 
she  was  a  trained  nurse  and  masseuse,  and  three 
references  who  had  employed  her  in  that  capacity 


IfQ  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

recommended  her  as  very  skillful  and  of  excellent 
character  and  habits.  She  is  of  good  education,  am- 
bitious and  practical,  is  thrifty,  sober  and  industrious 
and  does  not  get  into  debt  for  rent  or  anything  else. 
She  has  been  considering  the  advisability  of  resum- 
ing her  old  work  of  nursing  but  gets  no  encourage- 
ment in  the  idea,  and  she  is  not  now  physically  strong 
enough  to  do  that  kind  of  work. 

Since  the  failure  of  the  store  she  has  been  aided 
several  times  in  the  payment  of  rent  and  moving 
expenses  and  in  other  ways  and  the  only  regular 
income  at  present  is  that  earned  by  the  oldest  child 
who  is  employed  as  cash  girl  at  $2.50  per  week. 

Queries:  How  much  if  anything  should  a  woman 
of  this  age,  with  family  of  this  size,  and  in  only 
moderately  good  health,  earn,  besides  doing  her  own 
house  work?  Since  it  is  obvious  that  she  cannot 
earn  as  much  as  her  expenses,  whose  duty  is  it  to 
supply  the  deficiency,  assuming  that  there  are  no 
near  living  relatives  able  to  do  so?  Should  the  wo- 
man's former  employers,  who  speak  so  well  of  her, 
be  expected  to  contribute?  Should  the  cash  girl's 
wages  be  increased?  Should  some  church  or  relief 
society  undertake  the  responsibility?  Should  she  be 
left  to  herself  except  at  such  times  as  she  applies  to 
some  one  for  aid,  or  should  some  one  visit  her  with 
sufficient  regularity  to  know  when  aid  is  needed,  and 
so  obviate  the  necessity  for  such  applications;  or 
should  she  receive  a  regular  monthly  or  weekly  al- 
lowance from  some  source  that  will  be  sufficient  to 
relieve  her  of  anxiety?  Is  it  advisable  that  a  family 
of  this  character  should  receive  its  aid  from  the  pub- 
lic treasury  in  the  form  of  "  out-door  relief,"  and  if 
not  what  are  the  objections  to  this  course? 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  171 

Robert  and  Mary  Wilson,  four  children  aged  nine, 
seven,  three  and  one  and  a  half  years.  Wilson  is 
intemperate  and  does  not"  support  his  family.  They 
were  dispossessed  in  December  last  when  the  Society 
for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children  took  pos- 
session of  the  three  oldest  children  and  the  mother 
and  infant  went  to  a  lodging  house.  The  Magis- 
trate discharged  the  children,  the  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Society  having  offered  to  see  whether  the 
mother  and  children  could  not  be  kept  together. 
Rent  was  paid  in  new  rooms,  the  co-operation  of  a 
church  secured  and  furniture  provided.  A  private 
citizen  aided  in  clothing  the  children  and  gave  a 
Christmas  dinner.  The  woman  secured  regular 
work  in  a  laundry  for  five  days  each  week  at  $1.50  a 
day.  In  the  following  May,  Mrs.  Wilson  reported 
that  she  had  caused  the  arrest  of  her  husband  and 
that  he  had  been  placed  under  bonds  to  keep  the 
peace  and  to  pay  her  $6  per  week,  his  own  income 
being  $12  per  week.  This  agreement  was  kept  for 
nearly  three  months  when  Wilson  called  at  the  house, 
created  a  disturbance,  was  arrested  and  sent  to  the 
Workhouse  for  three  months.  The  landlord  an- 
noyed at  the  disturbance  notified  Mrs.  Wilson  that 
she  must  give  up  her  rooms.  The  children  became 
ill  and  the  small  savings  made  between  May  and 
July  were  exhausted  by  doctor's  bill  and  medicines.  \ 

Queries:  Assuming  that  the  mother  is  of  good 
character  should  the  breaking  up  of  the  family  under 
the  conditions  existing  in  December  be  prevented? 
If  the  family  is  kept  together  should  the  husband  be 


172  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

compelled  to  contribute  to  their  support  by  legal 
measures  as  was  done  in  May?  Did  the  wife  make 
a  mistake  in  causing  Wilson's  arrest  and  commit- 
ment to  the  Workhouse  in  July,  which  resulted  in 
cutting  off  her  own  income? 

Is  there  any  method  of  protection  for  a  family 
so  situated  equally  or  more  effective  and  less  burden- 
some to  the  innocent  members  of  the  family? 


Rudolph  and  Louisa  Stein  both  twenty-three 
years  old  have  been  in  the  country  two  years.  They 
became  acquainted  on  the  steamer  and  claimed  to 
have  been  married  at  the  City  Hall  upon  their  ar- 
rival in  New  York  but  to  have  kept  the  marriage 
secret  because  they  knew  that,  in  the  case  of  both, 
the  relatives  in  the  old  country  would  disapprove. 
The  young  man's  father  has  been  employed  in  a 
postoffice  in  Switzerland  for  twenty-five  years  and 
had  sent  his  son  to  this  country  supplied  with 
enough  money  to  last  a  few  months  but  expecting 
him  to  learn  to  rely  upon  his  own  efforts 
and  to  become  self-supporting.  The  agent  of 
the  Charity  Organization  Society  learning  that 
no  marriage  had  taken  place,  but  that  the  couple 
appeared  much  attached  to  each  other,  per- 
suaded them  to  supply  the  deficiency  and  they 
were  married  in  a  parish  house  by  a  clergyman 
of  the  faith  which  they  professed.  A  lady  who  had 
for  a  time  employed  Mrs.  Stein  as  governess  aided 
them  with  money  for  rent  and  furniture,  but  Stein's 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  173 

work  was  irregular  partly  because  of  rheumatism 
but  chiefly  because  of  general  inefficiency.  He  is 
now  idle  with  no  prospect  of  employment  and  his 
health  is  delicate.  They  have  one  child  born  about 
one  year  after  their  arrival  in  this  country  and  the 
woman  is  expecting  another  confinement  in  a  short 
time.  Stein's  father  has  sent  them  small  sums  oc- 
casionally and  he  has  now  consented  to  receive  the 
family  if  they  can  return  but  he  has  no  money  for 
their  transportation. 

Queries:  Is  it  wise  to  send  them  to  Switzerland 
and  if  so  should  it  be  done  privately,  or  by  the  city — 
on  the  ground  that  they  are  likely  to  become  public 
charges?  What  is  likely  to  be  the  future  career  of 
this  family  in  Switzerland  if  they  return?  Did  the 
Swiss  postmaster  make  a  mistake  in  sending  his  son 
to  America?  What  shall  be  done  if  the  fifty  dollars 
needed  to  pay  their  fare  to  their  Swiss  home  is  not 
forthcoming  ? 


Mary  Owen  an  old  colored  woman  (eighty-five) 
lives  with  various  friends,  frequently  moving.  A 
Mr.  Cole  gives  her  small  sums  of  money  from  time 
to  time  which  she  supplements  by  asking  alms  on 
the  street.  She  applies  regularly  for  city  coal  but 
this  and  the  greater  part  of  what  money  is  given  to 
her  go  to  the  various  families  with  whom  she  lives. 
She  is  very  childish.  When  the  possibility  of  enter- 
ing a  home  is  suggested  to  her  she  will  not  consider 
it  but  says  that  she  has  a  niece  living  somewhere  over 


174  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

in  Brooklyn  and  she  will  spend  the  rest  of  the  winter 
with  her. 

Queries :  Should  this  woman  be  compelled  to  enter 
a  home,  if  the  niece  does  not  provide  for  her? 
Would  it  be  better  to  pay  board  for  her  regularly 
with  some  one  of  her  "  friends  "  who  can  give  satis- 
factory care?  Should  she  be  declared  a  vagrant 
and  sent  to  the  Workhouse,  or  Almshouse?  Is  there 
anything  objectionable  in  Mr.  Cole's  occasional  gifts? 
in  the  alms  given  to  Mrs.  Owen  on  the  street  by 
strangers  ? 


i(  William  Docks,  a  German  widower,  has  four  chil- 
dren, the  two  older  of  whom,  Delia  and  Lucy,  are 
seventeen  and  fourteen  respectively.  Eleven  years 
ago  when  Mrs.  Dock  was  living  the  family  was 
known  as  a  shiftless  one  but  with  no  other  serious 
faults.  Delia  is  in  the  habit  of  standing  at  the  hall 
door  late  at  night  entertaining  young  men,  who  also 
go  there  and  carouse  on  Sunday,  sending  out  for 
liquor.  Both  Delia  and  Lucy  are  said  to  be  indecent 
in  their  behavior  and  on  one  Sunday  night  Delia 
was  so  intoxicated  that  her  father  had  to  carry  her 
into  the  house.  The  younger  children  are  neglected 
and  covered  with  vermin.  The  family  does  not  ask 
for  assistance.  ; 

Queries:  Is  this  a  case  for  action  by  the  courts? 
If  so  what  should  that  action  be?  If  either  or  both 
of  the  two  older  girls  are  committed  to  an  institution 
should  the  father  be  compelled  to  pay  for  their  main- 
tenance? What  should  be  done  for  the  younger 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  175 

children?  Would  a  probation  system  be  applicable 
to  this  case?  If  so  should  the  probation  officer  be  a 
man  or  a  woman?  How  much  has  the  shiftlessness 
of  the  parents,  which  was  reported  eleven  years  ago, 
to  do  with  the  present  unfortunate  situation?  If  the 
family  were  destitute  at  that  time  would  it  have  been 
better  for  Delia  and  Lucy  if  they  had  been  removed 
and  placed  in  foster-homes  or  institutions? 


Mrs.  Edward  Thompson  applied  to  the  Charity 
Organization  Society  in  1894  for  money  to  pay  a 
storage  bill  and  to  rent  a  studio  and  living  room. 
She  was  then  sixty-four  years  old,  a  widow,  and  for 
many  years  before  her  husband's  death  had  lived 
apart  from  him,  depending  upon  her  skill  as  an  artist 
for  her  support,  but  had  found  it  difficult  to  sell  her 
pictures  having  no  place  to  display  them  and  she 
had  exhausted  her  claims  on  her  friends.  She  ad- 
mitted that  she  had  brothers  in  distant  cities,  but 
there  had  been  some  family  trouble  and  she  was  un- 
willing to  ask  their  help  or  allow  others  to  communi- 
cate with  them.  Investigation  proved  that  she  was 
ambitious,  honest,  but  unfortunate  in  that,  as  it  was 
quaintly  expressed,  "  her  style  of  painting  was  not 
equal  to  that  of  the  present  day  or  sufficiently  old- 
fashioned  to  have  value  as  antique  work."  Through 
the  co-operation  of  a  relief  society  her  living  ex- 
penses were  provided  until  the  Artists'  Fund  was 
interviewed  in  her  behalf  and  gave  the  amount  need- 
ed to  establish  her  in  her  own  room.  In  April,  1898, 


176  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

she  again  needed  a  helping  hand.  She  reported  that 
she  had  invented  a  unique  folding  bed  and  through 
an  interested  individual  had  secured  her  patent.  She 
expected  in  time  to  realize  considerable  from  it  but 
had  not  been  able  to  make  a  fair  start.  She  was 
again  tided  along  until  the  Artists'  Fund  made  her 
a  second  gift  and  her  prospect  for  the  future  was  en- 
couraging. Some  months  later  it  was  learned  that 
soon  after  receiving  the  gift  mentioned  she  was  taken 
ill,  had  been  unable  to  sell  any  pictures  and  the 
money  had  been  used  for  necessities,  leaving  her 
without  means  and  in  debt.  As  the  same  conditions 
were  likely  to  be  recurrent  it  seemed  best  to  place 
her  in  a  permanent  home,  and  although  she  at  first 
objected  her  consent  was  finally  gained.  Owing  to 
various  obstacles  of  governing  rules,  absence  of 
vacancies,  etc.,  much  time  passed  with  no  satisfactory 
result.  It  was  finally  decided  to  send  a  letter  which 
might  gain  the  definite  address  of  at  least  one  of 
her  brothers,  which  Mrs.  Thompson  had  persistent- 
ly refused  to  give.  It  proved  successful  and  a  home 
was  offered  her  as  well  as  help  towards  her  trans- 
portation. When  notified  she  at  first  stoutly  re- 
fused to  consider  the  suggestion,  but  when  reminded 
of  the  long-continued  care  which  she  had  received, 
the  impossibility  of  being  admitted  to  a  Home  at 
any  definite  time  in  the  near  future,  and  that  the  last 
resource  would  be  the  Public  Charities,  she  accepted 
the  offer.  The  many  necessary  arrangements  were 
made,  a  trunk  released  from  storage,  her  ticket  se- 
cured at  a  reduced  rate,  a  little  ready  money  provided 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  177 

for  incidental  expenses  on  the  journey,  and  she  was 
safely  started.  Letters  were  received  after  her  ar- 
rival expressing  her  gratification  at  the  result  of  the 
efforts  in  her  behalf,  reporting  a  cordial  welcome 
from  her  brother's  family  and  describing  the  happy 
home  in  which  she  is  settled.  Interested  persons  are 
working  to  establish  a  company  for  the  manufacture 
of  the  folding  bed  she  invented  and  she  is  still  san- 
guine of  a  future  independence  from  that  source. 

Queries:  How  far  should  distress  be  relieved  by 
special  funds  intended  for  particular  classes  such  as 
artists,  actors,  etc.,  and  supported  mainly  by  the 
prosperous  members  of  the  same  class?  For  in- 
stance was  it  less  injurious  and  less  humiliating  for 
Mrs.  Thompson  to  receive  assistance  from  the 
Artists'  Fund  than  it  would  have  been  to  receive 
it  from  a  general  relief  fund  or  from  private  in- 
dividuals? Should  relatives  be  communicated  with 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  applicants?  Should 
Mrs.  Thompson  have  charitable  assistance  in  selling 
her  pictures?  in  placing  her  folding  bed  upon  the 
market  ? 


In  June,  1899,  Richard  Roberts  called  at  the  of- 
fice of  the  Charity  Organization  Society  for  care 
and  aid  to  employment.  He  had  neither  parents  nor 
home,  had  served  in  the  English  army,  and  after 
being  mustered  out  found  it  difficult  to  keep  a  situa- 
tion owing  to  rheumatism,  which  he  contracted  while 
in  service.  He  was  provided  with  temporary  lodg- 
ings and  food  pending  his  securing  work.  Twenty- 


178  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

two  cents  was  expended  in  postage  writing  to  those 
whose  names  he  gave  as  references,  and  an  effort 
made  for  his  reinstatement  with  some  one  of  his 
former  employers.  A  prompt  reply  from  one  of 
them  offered  him  immediate  work,  which  he  gladly 
accepted.  The  employer  sent  a  check  sufficient  to 
pay  for  his  transportation,  costing  between  seven 
and  eight  dollars,  redeem  his  pawned  clothing,  pur- 
chase some  new  garments,  reimburse  the  amount  ex- 
pended for  the  food  and  lodgings  given,  and  pro- 
vide Richard  with  a  little  change  for  incidentals. 
Within  nine  days  of  his  application  he  was  on  his 
way  to  the  situation. 

Queries :  Was  it  advisable  in  this  instance  to  com- 
municate with  former  employers?  Are  the  chances 
on  the  whole  in  favor  of  good  or  bad  results,  from 
inquiries  of  this  kind  addressed  to  former  employ- 
ers? to  present  employers,  when  as  sometimes  hap- 
pens the  family  is  in  need  although  the  head  is  em- 
ployed ? 


Mrs.  Mary  Anson,  thirty-eight  years  old,  has  been 
a  widow  since  November  1894,  when  her  husband, 
James  Anson,  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  a  building. 
He  was  insured  for  two  hundred  dollars,  out  of 
which  his  funeral  expenses  were  paid,  leaving  but 
sixty  dollars  on  hand.  There  were  four  children, 
the  oldest  not  quite  seven  years.  Mrs.  Anson  was 
physically  delicate  and  an  inefficient  manager,  but  of 
good  character  and  much  respected.  Her  brother 
made  his  home  with  her  and  when  at  work  gave  her 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  179 

a  little  assistance ;  the  Society  for  the  Relief  of  Poor 
Widows  made  her  a  beneficiary  and  she  received 
from  her  husband's  employers  two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  "  damages." 

In  December,  1897,  the  money  had  been  expended 
and  Mrs.  Anson's  only  income  was  ten  dollars  a 
month  for  the  care  of  a  foundling,  church  sewing  to 
the  amount  of  eighty-five  cents  a  week,  and  the  re- 
lief from  the  Widows'  Society  amounting  to  $5  a 
month.  It  was  found  that  while  at  times  money 
given  or  earned  had  been  expended  in  a  way  that 
might  not  have  been  advised,  it  had  not  been  wasted 
but  used  to  add  to  the  comforts  of  the  children. 

Queries:  Should  James  Anson  have  had  more  in- 
surance ?  Should  the  widow  have  obtained  more  from 
his  employers  assuming  that  the  fall  was  in  no  de- 
gree due  to  his  own  carelessness?  How  much,  if 
anything,  should  be  added  to  present  income  from 
charitable  sources?  What  service  would  be  per- 
formed in  a  case  of  this  kind  by  a  friendly  visitor? 


In  the  autumn  of  1897  a  personal  application  was 
made  to  the  Charity  Organization  Society  by  Mr. 
Toby,  a  cripple,  sixty  years  old,  to  place  himself  and 
wife,  six  years  his  senior,  in  a  Home.  His  infir- 
mity unfitted  him  for  work,  they  had  no  children  or 
relatives  who  could  care  for  them,  and  efforts  in 
their  own  behalf  had  been  discouraging.  It  was 
found  that  they  had  won  the  good-will  and  respect 


l8o  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

of  fellow  tenants  and  those  with  whom  they  had 
come  into  contact  and  there  was  a  probability  that 
some  were  sufficiently  interested  to  help  them.  The 
co-operation  of  a  church  and  a  relief  society  was 
secured  and  their  immediate  needs  were  supplied. 
Efforts  to  place  them  in  any  one  of  the  free  homes 
were  unsuccessful  owing  to  the  absence  of  vacan- 
cies and  to  long  waiting  lists.  By  their  own  ef- 
forts, contributions  from  friends,  etc.,  they  obtained 
$381,  enough  to  pay  admission  fee  in  one  of  the 
homes  in  which  a  moderate  charge  is  made.  This 
they  entrusted  to  a  church  representative,  who  noti- 
fied the  Charity  Organization  Society  that  he  had 
assumed  full  charge  of  negotiations  and  would  bring 
the  affair  to  a  satisfactory  result,  but  as  time  went 
on  and  they  began  to  grow  discouraged,  they  also 
grew  suspicious  of  their  trustee  and  appealed  to  the 
Society.  The  fact  developed  that  they  had  been  im- 
posed upon,  and  their  money  misappropriated.  The 
case  was  put  in  the  hands  of  the  lawyers  of  the  Legal 
Aid  Society,  and,  while  waiting  for  its  turn  on  the 
docket,  the  Charity  Organization  Society  raised  the 
sum  of  $300  for  them.  Just  before  the  case  was  to 
come  before  the  Grand  Jury  the  dishonest  trustee 
offered  to  settle  by  returning  the  full  amount  of  the 
trust.  The  offer  was  accepted  with  the  consent  of 
the  public  officials.  It  appeared  that  the  defense  had 
already  cost  the  man  nearly  a  thousand  dollars  and 
it  also  seemed  probable  that  he  was  not  fully  men- 
tally responsible.  After  untiring  efforts,  made  greater 
by  differences  of  creed,  nationality,  etc.,  which  ren- 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  l8l 

dered  the  couple  ineligible  to  various  homes,  they 
were  comfortably  established.  After  paying  the  fee 
and  living  expenses  while  the  events  described  were 
in  progress  there  was  a  little  remaining  surplus  which 
Mr.  Toby  asked  to  have  appropriated  for  some  needy 
person,  reserving  only  sufficient  to  supply  him  with  a 
little  pocket  money.  Visits  to  the  home  have  found 
the  couple  free  from  anxiety,  contented  and  happy. 

Queries:  How  far  should  those  who  are  engaged 
in  charitable  work  resort  to  the  courts,  to  the  police 
authorities,  etc.,  to  secure  justice  for  persons  in  whom 
they  are  interested?  Is  there  any  better  method  of 
permanently  caring  for  aged  persons  than  to  pay  their 
admission  fee  into  a  well-conducted  home  for  the 
aged? 


Ten  years  ago  when  the  Charity  Organization 
Society  first  learned  of  George  and  Mary  Starling, 
both  over  fifty  years  old,  they  were  homeless  and 
the  man  had  been  idle  for  months.  He  was  con- 
sidered by  those  with  whom  he  had  had  business 
transactions,  as  untrustworthy,  even  to  dishonesty, 
very  extravagant,  unwilling  to  work  and  ready  to 
depend,  as  he  had  for  years,  upon  such  aid  as  he 
could  solicit  from  relatives,  friends,  or  apparently 
any  one  likely  to  respond  to  his  appeals.  He  was 
also  addicted  to  intemperance.  Mrs.  Starling  was 
refined  and  of  respectable  character,  but  inefficient 
and  inclined  to  share  comfortably  any  aid  that  could 
be  procured.  Her  relatives  were  abundantly  able 


l82  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

to  assist  her,  but  their  patience  had  long  since  been 
exhausted,  and  while  offering  to  care  for  her  and 
her  children  if  she  would  live  apart  from  her  hus- 
band, they  refused  to  extend  aid  under  other  cir- 
cumstances, as  it  was  well  known  Mr.  Starling  would 
not  exert  himself  as  long  as  relief  could  be  obtained, 
and  they  were  unwilling  that  he  should  share  any 
benefits.  Mr.  Starling's  relatives  held  the  same 
views;  they  stated  they  had  repeatedly  tried  to  as- 
sist in  a  way  that  would  prove  a  lasting  benefit,  but 
their  efforts  had  been  fruitless,  and  it  was  felt  that 
the  best  disposition  of  the  children  would  be  to  place 
them  in  some  institution  until  their  parents  could 
properly  care  for  them.  One  of  Mrs.  Starling's  rel- 
atives advanced  sufficient  to  pay  for  temporary 
shelter  and  food  for  the  woman  and  children,  giv- 
ing the  man  an  opportunity  to  make  provision  for 
them,  but  gave  the  amount  with  positive  instructions 
that  she  should  not  know  the  source  of  relief. 

At  about  this  time  Mr.  Starling  secured  a  position 
on  trial  at  $10  per  week  and  a  commission  propor- 
tionate to  his  success  as  a  salesman.  A  few  days 
later  they  were  again  in  trouble  and  Mr.  Starling 
again  soliciting  aid  at  which  time  steps  were  taken 
to  have  the  children  committed  but  they  were  finally 
left  with  their  parents.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
interview  the  woman's  sister  with  reference  to  se- 
curing aid  for  the  family.  She  however,  for  rea- 
sons which  she  declined  to  state,  did  not  wish  to  be 
interviewed  or  communicated  with  regarding  the 
matter,  as  she  stated  that  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Starling 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  183 

knew  her  disposition  towards  them  and  their  circum- 
stances were  fully  known  to  her. 

From  time  to  time  the  case  has  been  brought  to 
the  notice  of  the  Society  by  those  to  whom  the  man 
has  applied,  usually  for  a  loan.  Various  sugges- 
tions have  been  made  towards  improving  their  con- 
dition but  they  have  not  been  acceptable  and  such 
work  as  has  been  offered  him  he  has  considered  "  too 
menial." 

In  October,  1894,  Mr.  Starling  was  committed  to 
the  Penitentiary  for  one  year  on  two  charges  of 
forgery.  In  June,  1896,  the  family  was  visited  by 
request  of  one  of  whom  the  man  begged.  Mrs. 
Starling  stated  her  husband  returned  from  the  Peni- 
tentiary in  August,  1895,  broken  in  health,  and  had 
never  since  earned  more  than  ten  dollars  per  week; 
that  he  had  been  doing  a  little  business  in  real  es- 
tate, stocks,  and  bonds.  She  also  stated  that  the 
oldest  daughter  had  taken  a  place  at  service  at  one 
dollar  per  week  and  her  board,  but  her  health  was 
poor  and  she  was  obliged  to  give  it  up.  She  asserted 
that  her  husband  was  temperate  and  anxious  for 
work,  and  that  his  imprisonment  was  unjust. 

In  March,  1897,  the  family  was  visited  by  special 
request  of  one  to  whom  the  man  had  appealed,  but 
no  indication  of  need  was  found  and  Mrs.  Starling 
said  she  could  not  understand  why  her  husband 
should  ask  relief  as  she  had  received  some  money  in 
the  winter  and  had  paid  three  months'  rent  in  ad- 
vance, that  her  two  older  daughters  had  good  posi- 
tions and,  although  Mr.  Starling's  earnings  amount- 


184  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

ed  to  very  little,  they  had  managed  comfortably. 
She  regretted  her  husband's  action  and  would  ask 
him  not  to  repeat  it  as  they  did  not  require  relief. 

At  intervals  since  then  visits  have  been  made  which 
have  shown  that  Mr.  Starling  has  a  little  work  on 
commission,  is  intemperate  and  against  the  wishes 
and  to  the  mortification  of  his  wife  and  daughters 
makes  frequent  applications  and  uses  for  himself  the 
greater  portion  of  the  money  he  receives.  The 
daughter  Laura  is  an  invalid  requiring  nourishing 
food  and  constant  care. 

Queries:  Would  this  family  be  in  better  position 
if  the  man,  who  has  been  shown  to  be  dishonest,  un- 
truthful, intemperate,  inefficient,  and  indifferent  to 
the  feelings  of  his  wife  and  daughters,  were  taken 
into  custody?  Should  the  state  provide  employment 
for  a  man  of  this  character  and  compel  him  to  work  ? 


James  K.  Howell,  a  man  of  refinement  and  edu- 
cation, must  be  allowed  to  tell  his  own  story.  Two 
of  his  children,  a  daughter  of  ten  and  a  son  of  eight 
years  old,  are  with  him.  He  says  that  a  third  daugh- 
ter six  years  of  age  is  living  with  his  sister  in 
Canada,  that  he  is  a  Canadian  Protestant,  but  has 
lived  fourteen  years  in  the  United  States;  that  he 
has  been  a  successful  banker  and  broker,  has  lived 
in  a  suburb  of  Boston  in  his  own  house  surrounded 
by  luxury,  but  that  in  the  panic  of  1893  he  met  with 
heavy  losses.  He  had  previously  placed  his  prop- 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  185 

erty  in  his  wife's  name  and  that  of  her  father. 
When  the  crisis  came  she  refused  to  curtail  the  house- 
hold expenses  and  when  he  attempted  to  sell  the 
carriage  and  horses  his  father-in-law  and  wife  in- 
terfered. The  former  in  a  personal  altercation 
struck  him,  causing  an  injury  to  his  head  which  kept 
him  more  than  a  month  in  a  hospital.  When  he  re- 
turned to  his  home  his  wife  and  all  the  household 
goods  had  disappeared,  and  the  children  had  been 
left  with  a  neighbor.  The  wife  had  gone  to  an  un- 
known address  with  a  man  whom  he  considered  his 
friend.  As  his  house  had  not  been  sold  he  and  his 
children  continued  to  live  there  until  1898  when  he 
moved  to  New  York,  placing  the  youngest  child  with 
his  sister  in  Canada. 

No  help  is  given  him  by  the  members  of  his  fam- 
ily and  since  coming  to  New  York  he  has  managed  to 
live  by  pawning  and  selling  articles  of  clothing  and 
designing  and  writing  advertisements.  He  has  de- 
pended upon  his  oldest  daughter  for  the  sale  of  these 
as  his  own  health  was  not  good  and  he  could  not  go 
about  with  them.  This  was  two  years  ago.  Aid  in 
food,  some  articles  of  clothing  for  the  children,  and 
rent  was  provided  while  an  investigation  was  being 
made.  Mr.  Howell  had  a  number  of  patents  and 
inventions  upon  which  he  expected  to  realize  a  com- 
fortable amount.  He  stated  that  his  pride  would 
not  allow  him  to  meet  in  his  poor  rooms  the  men  of 
mind  and  ability  who  would  appreciate  the  inven- 
tions, and  he  had  not  the  strength  to  go  out  and  in- 
terview them  in  their  own  offices.  After  an  ex- 


1 86  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

amination  by  a  physician  he  was  found  sufficiently 
improved  in  health  to  get  about  and  repeated  efforts 
were  made  for  him  to  go  with  a  representative  of  the 
society  to  a  business  house  where  he  could  present 
his  patents,  but  from  time  to  time  he  deferred  it  and 
finally  said  he  would  need  no  further  aid,  so  much 
had  been  done  for  him  he  was  unwilling  to  increase 
the  obligation. 

In  the  latter  part  of  December,  1898,  he  reported 
that  he  had  interested  in  his  invention  one  who  would 
give  him  four  hundred  dollars  in  weekly  installments 
of  fifty  dollars,  and  he  hopes  to  raise  several  thou- 
sand dollars,  within  a  couple  of  months  and  would 
then  go  to  a  warmer  climate  for  his  health. 

In  the  investigation,  one  of  Mrs.  Howell's  friends 
testified  that  she  believed  her  to  be  an  innocent  in- 
jured woman.  This  friend  of  the  wife  considered 
Mr.  Howell  unscrupulous  and  made  several  charges 
against  him.  She  also  stated  that  Mrs.  Howell  was 
earning  her  own  living  in  Nova  Scotia.  Mrs.  How- 
ell's  father  reported  that  his  son-in-law  had  treated 
his  family  brutally.  A  banker  in  Boston  considered 
Mr.  Howell  and  his  brother  who  had  previously 
been  his  tenant,  unscrupulous  men.  It  was  be- 
lieved they  had  kept  a  "  bucket  shop."  In  contra- 
diction to  this,  one  of  Mrs.  Howell's  relatives  ex- 
pressed the  greatest  sympathy  for  Mr.  Howell, 
claiming  that  his  wife  and  the  man  for  whom  she  left 
him  were  responsible  for  his  troubles  and  that  he 
was  a  gentleman  in  all  respects,  honest  and  faithful 
to  his  family.  A  lady  who  had  been  a  near  neighbor 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  1 87 

of  the  family  considered  that  Mr.  Howell  had 
been  much  abused.  She  stated  that  Mrs.  Howell 
was  her  husband's  inferior  in  all  respects,  was  un- 
accustomed to  money  and  his  prosperity  proved  dis- 
astrous to  her;  she  neglected  her  home  and  chil- 
dren, and  finally  became  disloyal  to  her  husband.  The 
informant  saw  the  father-in-law  strike  Mr.  Howell 
as  the  latter  had  reported.  The  quarrel  took  place 
in  the  grounds  of  the  house  near  the  stable.  It  was 
also  stated  that  after  living  a  few  months  with  the 
man  who  took  her  away,  Mrs.  Howell  went  with 
her  father  to  her  former  home  "  down  east." 

In  the  two  years  Mr.  Howell  has  become  more 
helpless  and  irritable,  and  even  less  able  to  care  for 
his  children.  He  is  determined  not  to  give  them  up, 
declaring  that  he  will  commit  suicide  the  moment 
that  is  done.  He  is  morbid  and  unfit  for  any  kind 
of  useful  labor.  His  means  are  entirely  exhausted. 

Queries:  What  influence  should  the  fact  that  a 
destitute  family  is  of  superior  intelligence  and  re- 
finement have  upon  its  treatment  by  relief  agencies? 
Should  our  sympathies  be  aroused  more  by  the  pa- 
thetic downfall  of  a  man  who  has  once  been  a  member 
of  the  stock  exchange,  or  by  the  heroic  struggle  of  a 
family  which  has  been  poor  but  in  which  there  are 
promising  children  likely  under  favorable  conditions 
to  make  a  success  in  life?  Should  Mr.  Howell's 
children  be  taken  from  him  in  spite  of  his  threat  of 
suicide,  or  should  relief  be  provided  in  sufficient 
amount  to  enable  him  to  employ  a  housekeeper? 
Should  any  further  attempt  be  made  to  fix  respon- 
sibility for  the  separation  of  the  husband  and  wife, 


1 88  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

and  if  she  is  of  good  character  should  the  children 
if  possible  be  placed  in  her  charge? 


Envin  Harvey  Lodge  first  came  to  the  notice  of 
the  Charity  Organization  Society  in  September,  1896, 
when  he  gave  his  age  as  sixty-nine  years,  claimed 
to  be  a  writer  and  proof-reader  and  to  have  a  wife 
and  six  children,  but  refused  to  give  their  addresses. 
He  stated  that  twelve  years  previous  he  had  been  re- 
tired from  the  British  army  on  his  own  application, 
as  his  salary  as  Major  was  not  sufficient  for  him  to 
live  in  London  in  the  style  he  desired,  and  tfiat  he 
received  a  pension  of  £82  which  he  had  assigned  to 
his  wife.  He  also  stated  that  he  was  a  member  of 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society  and  by  poor  in- 
vestments had  lost  fifteen  thousand  dollars  since  com- 
ing to  America.  He  gave  other  details  of  his  life 
making  a  very  plausible  story. 

When  his  statement  was  investigated  those  who 
had  employed  him  reported  his  clerical  work  as  satis- 
factory, but  the  files  of  the  Registration  Bureau 
showed  that  he  had  been  denounced  by  the  Free 
Masons  as  far  back  as  1890;  that  he  was  reported 
to  have  been  arrested  in  Orange,  N.  J.,  where  his 
picture  is  in  the  Rogues'  gallery,  and  to  have  been 
pronounced  a  fraud  by  the  English  Lodges  of  which 
he  claimed  to  be  a  member. 

He  appeared  again  three  and  one-half  years  later 
and  then  gave  addresses  in  England  for  various 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  189 

members  of  his  family.  In  reply  to  letters  sent  to 
our  English  correspondents  we  were  told  that  his 
military  story  is  false,  that  he  is  an  impostor,  beg- 
ging-letter writer  and  confirmed  rogue.  The  ad- 
dresses he  gave  for  his  wife  and  children  do  not  ex- 
ist and  no  one  could  be  found  who  had  ever  heard  of 
them.  Mr.  Lodge  has  been  known  by  the  aliases 
of  Acker,  Gray  and  Davidson.  So  far  as  is  known 
he  has  at  times  been  given  temporary  aid  by  three 
relief  agencies. 

Queries :  If  this  man  is  found  to  be,  as  he  repre- 
sents, destitute  and  unable  to  secure  employment, 
should  he  be  aided?  If  so  should  he  receive  money ; 
or  meals  and  lodgings;  or  work?  Should  the  facts 
about  him  be  made  known  ( I )  to  those  who  inquire 
about  him,  (2)  to  clergymen  and  relief  agencies, 
(3)  to  the  general  public?  Should  he  be  arrested 
and  dealt  with  as  a  criminal  ? 


Mrs.  Victoria  Margheritta  Holstein  has  been  the 
bane  and  perplexity  of  numerous  charitable  societies 
and  of  the  Superintendent  of  Out  Door  Poor  of  the 
Department  of  Public  Charities  for  fifteen  years. 
She  claims  to  be  the  oldest  daughter  of  one  of  the 
most  esteemed  of  the  reigning  sovereigns  of  Europe 
and  the  sensational  story  of  her  life  has  been  pub- 
lished in  the  newspapers  and  in  a  book  upon  which 
the  publisher  lost  what  money  he  invested  besides 
having  to  pay  many  of  the  author's  debts.  She  has 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

been  aided  and  at  other  times  refused  aid,  by  the 
benevolent  society  of  the  nationality  to  which  she 
claimed  allegiance.  Many  private  individuals  have 
aided  her  but  none  so  often  or  so  liberally  as  she 
demanded.  Her  persistent  applications  for  assist- 
ance of  a  kind  definitely  prescribed  by  herself,  and 
her  many  eccentricities  have  generally  led  to  a  final 
refusal  to  continue  the  relief  which  various  societies 
have  extended  and  as  a  result  she  always  complains 
bitterly  that  "  nothing  is  done  for  her,"  and  she  has 
threatened  repeatedly  to  "  expose "  all  these  so- 
cieties. Many  believe  that  she  is  quite  honest  in  her 
claims  as  to  parentage  and  it  is  reported  that  a  serv- 
ant of  her  alleged  parents  for  many  years  forwarded 
to  her  an  annual  allowance  which,  however,  ceased  at 
his  death.  She  is  not  insane,  at  least  there  is  no  one 
who  is  willing  to  take  the  initiative  in  bringing  about 
her  commitment  to  an  asylum. 

At  present  she  is  living  in  a  bare  room,  she  is  in 
ill  health,  admits  that  she  is  in  need  of  food  and  in 
danger  of  eviction.  She  declines  resolutely,  how- 
ever, to  give  any  account  of  herself,  to  tell  where  she 
has  recently  lived  or  how  she  has  supported  herself. 
She  is  nervous  and  excitable  but  refuses  care  in  a 
hospital  or  convalescent  home,  declines  light  em- 
ployment in  sewing  and  asserts  that  she  wants  relief 
only  in  her  own  way.  She  accepts  special  food 
from  a  Diet  Kitchen  but  gives  only  grudging  ad- 
mission to  a  district  nurse  who  reports  that  what 
Mrs.  Holstein  certainly  needs  physically  is  good 
nourishment  and  rest. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  IQI 

Queries:  What  can  be  done  with  her?  Should 
the  decisions  of  relief  societies  be  influenced  by 
threats  of  "  exposure,"  or  by  personal  eccentricities 
of  applicants?  How  far  should  distress  be  relieved 
by  societies  organized  upon  a  basis  of  nationality,  or 
neighborhood,  like  the  St.  George's  Society  for  Eng- 
lish, the  St  David's  Society  for  Welsh,  the  French 
Benevolent,  and  the  Swiss  Benevolent  Societies,  the 
New  England  Society,  the  Ohio  Society,  etc.  ? 


APPENDIX  I 


CONSTITUTION  OF    A  CHARITY  OR- 
GANIZATION SOCIETY.1 

ARTICLE  I. 

The  name  of  this  Society  shall  be  THE  CHARITY 
ORGANIZATION  SOCIETY  OF  THE  CITY  OF 

ARTICLE   II. 

STATEMENT  OF  PURPOSES  AND  OBJECTS. 

SECTION  i.  To  extirpate  pauperism,  mendicancy 
and  such  social  conditions  as  create  preventable 
dependency. 

SECTION  2.  To  provide  from  the  proper  sources, 
as  far  as  lies  in  its  power  to  obtain  it,  adequate 
assistance  and  intelligent  care  for  needy  families  in 
their  homes  and  for  homeless  persons. 

SECTION  3.  In  accomplishing  the  objects  above 
named,  to  obtain  the  co-operation  of  other  agencies 
and  of  charitable  individuals. 


1Prepared  by  the  author  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Frank 
Tucker.  Many  sections  of  this  draft  may  require  modifi- 
cation to  meet  local  conditions. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

SECTION  4.  To  promote  the  general  welfare  by 
social  reforms  affecting  the  living  conditions  of 
wage-earners. 

ARTICLE    III. 

MEMBERSHIP. 

SECTION  i.  The  Society  shall  be  composed  of 
the  following  persons : 

Annual  Members :  Those  who  contribute  annu- 
ally five  dollars  to  the  funds  of  the  Society  and  are 
approved  by  the  Finance  Committee. 

Associate  Members :  Those  who  contribute 
twenty  dollars  to  the  funds  of  the  Society  and  are 
approved  by  the  Finance  Committee. 

Life  Members:  Those  who  contribute  one  hun- 
dred dollars  to  the  funds  of  the  Society  at  any  one 
time  and  are  approved  for  life  membership  by  th$ 
Finance  Committee. 

ARTICLE    IV. 

MEETINGS  OF   THE   SOCIETY. 

The  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Society  shall  be  held 
on  the  second  Wednesday  of  October,  when  a  report 
of  the  work  and  condition  of  the  Society  for  the 
past  year  shall  be  submitted,  and  members  of  the 
Council  shall  be  elected  to  fill  vacancies  caused  by 
expiration  of  term.  No  person  shall  be  eligible  to 
election  as  a  member  of  the  Council  unless  his  name 
shall  have  been  posted  for  ten  successive  days  prior 


194  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

to  the  date  of  holding  the  election  in  the  Central 
Office  of  the  Society. 

The  President  may  call  a  special  meeting  when- 
ever seven  members  of  the  Society  request  him  in 
writing  to  do  so.  Such  written  request  shall 
specify  the  business  to  be  transacted,  and  the  meet- 
ing requested  shall  be  called  within  twenty  days 
after  receipt  of  the  request. 

Seven  members  shall  constitute  a  quorum  at  the 
annual  and  at  any  special  meeting  of  the  Society. 

At  any  special  meeting  only  such  business  shall  be 
transacted  as  was  specified  in  the  notice  of  the 
meeting. 

ARTICLE  V. 
THE  COUNCIL. 

BOARD  OF  MANAGERS.      BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES. 

SECTION  I.  The  management  of  the  Society 
shall  be  vested  in  a  Council  which  shall  consist  of 
thirty  members  of  the  Society,  who  shall  be  elected 
by  ballot  and  hold  office  until  their  successors  shall 
be  elected. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Society  in  October 
there  shall  be  elected  three  classes  of  ten  members 
each,  the  first  to  serve  for  one  year,  the  second  for 
two  years,  and  the  third  for  three  years  from  the 
date  of  election.  Thereafter  at  each  annual  meeting 
of  the  Society  there  shall  be  elected  ten  members  of 
the  Council  to  succeed  those  whose  terms  expire  at 
that  meeting.  The  term  of  office  of  the  members 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  IQ5 

of  the  Central  Council  shall  be  three  years,  and  until 
their  successors  are  elected ;  provided,  however, 
that  the  absence  of  a  member  from  three  consecutive 
meetings  of  the  Council  without  satisfactory  excuse 
may  be  considered  by  the  President  as  equivalent 
to  a  resignation,  and  the  vacancy  so  caused  by  such 
resignation  may  be  filled  by  the  Council  as  herein- 
after provided. 

SECTION  2.  The  officers  of  the  Council  shall  con- 
sist of  a  President,  a  Vice-President,  a  Treasurer, 
and  a  Secretary.  All  excepting  the  Secretary  shall 
be  members  of  the  Council,  and  shall  be  elected  by 
ballot  at  the  first  meting  of  the  Council  after  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Society.  The  Secretary  shall 
be  appointed  by  the  Council.  They  shall  continue 
in  office  until  their  successors  are  chosen.  The 
officers  of  the  Council  shall  also  be  the  officers  of  the 
Society. 

SECTION  3.  The  Council  shall  have  power  to  fill 
vacancies  occurring  in  its  own  body. 

SECTION  4.  There  shall  be  a  regular  meeting  of 
the  Council  on  the  second  Wednesday  in  each 
month.  Special  meetings  may  be  called  by  the 
President  at  any  time,  and  shall  be  called  on  a  writ- 
ten request  of  five  members  of  the  Council.  Two 
days'  notice  shall  be  given  of  any  such  special  meet- 
ing, and  the  call  shall  specify  the  object  thereof. 
No  other  business  than  that  named  in  the  call  shall 
be  presented  at  a  special  meeting. 

SECTION  5.  At  any  meeting  of  the  Council  seven 
elective  members  shall  constitute  a  quorum. 


IQ6  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

SECTION  6.  The  Council  shall  make  such  by- 
laws as  it  may  deem  necessary  governing  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Society,  and  may  also  alter  or  suspend 
such  by-laws. 

ARTICLE  VI. 

DUTIES  OF  OFFICERS. 

SECTION  I.  The  President  and  Vice-President 
shall  perform  the  duties  which  usually  pertain  to 
their  respective  offices. 

SECTION  2.  The  Treasurer  shall  have  charge  of 
the  funds  of  the  Society.  He  shall  make  monthly 
reports  to  the  Council,  and  shall  give  such  security 
as  the  Council  shall  require.  His  duties  are  more 
fully  defined  in  Article  VIII. 

SECTION  3.  The  Secretary  shall  keep  the  min- 
utes of  the  Council,  and  shall  notify  officers  and 
members  of  the  Council  of  their  appointment.  He 
shall  be,  under  the  direction  of  the  Council,  the 
general  executive  officer  of  the  Society.  He  shall 
attend  all  committee  meetings  so  far  as  practicable, 
and  shall  act  as  secretary  of  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee, and  of  other  standing  committees  so  far  as 
practicable.  His  further  duties  are  set  forth  in 
Article  VIII. 

ARTICLE   VII. 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  WORK. 

SECTION  i.  The  various  activities  of  the  Society 
shall  be  under  the  direction  of  standing  and  special 
committees  subject  to  the  control  of  the  Council. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  197 

SECTION  2.  The  standing  committees  of  the 
Council  shall  consist  of  not  less  than  three  persons, 
and  shall  be  appointed  annually  by  the  President, 
who  shall  also  designate  the  chairman.  It  shall  be 
the  duty  of  each  committee  to  present  a  report  at 
each  meeting  of  the  Council. 

SECTION  3.  The  Executive  Committee  shall  act 
for  the  Council  in  the  interim  of  its  sessions,  and 
shall  approve  of  all  appointments  of  employees  and 
regulate  their  compensation.  It  shall  transact  any 
business  for  the  Society  which  in  its  judgment  can- 
not wait  for  the  action  of  the  Council  and  does  not 
involve  an  expenditure  of  over  five  hundred  dollars. 
It  shall  make  nominations  to  the  Council  to  fill 
vacancies  in  that  body. 

SECTION  4.  The  Committee  on  Finance  shall  be 
charged  with  the  duty  of  raising  and  caring  for  the 
funds  of  the  Society  as  set  forth  in  Article  VIII, 
and  shall  also  pass  upon  the  names  of  all  persons 
qualified  for  membership,  pursuant  to  Article  I. 

SECTION  5.  The  Committee  on  the  Care  and 
Relief  of  the  Dependent  shall  have  immediate 
charge  of  all  work  relating  to  applications  for 
assistance,  the  investigation  of  applications  made  to 
the  Society  or  referred  to  the  Society  for  investiga- 
tion, the  keeping  of  records  relating  to  dependent 
families  and  the  making  of  reports  from  such 
records,  and  the  material  relief  of  families  and 
homeless  persons. 

The  city  shall  be  divided,  for  the  purpose  of  the 
Society,  into  such  districts  as  the  Committee  on  the 


IQ  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

Care  and  Relief  of  the  Dependent  shall  designate; 
but  the  committee  may  unite  any  two  or  more  o* 
such  districts  into  one,  and  may  at  any  time  rei 
range  such  districts  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
Council. 

In  each  district,  or  combination  of  districts,  there 
shall  be  a  District  Committee,  consisting  of  twelve 
or  more  persons,  preferably  residents  of  the  district. 
The  Committee  on  the  Care  and  Relief  of  the 
Dependent  shall  appoint  the  original  members  of 
such  committee,  and  said  committee  shall  thereafter 
have  power  to  fill  the  vacancies  in  its  own  number, 
subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Committee  on  the 
Care  and  Relief  of  the  Dependent.  In  case  a  rear- 
rangement of  districts  shall  be  made  at  any  time  by 
the  committee,  it  shall  appoint  the  original  members 
of  the  District  Committee  for  the  newly  combined 
districts. 

Each  District  Committee  shall  perform  such  duties 
as  shall  be  assigned  to  it  by  the  Committee  on  the 
Care  and  Relief  of  the  Dependent. 

An  office  shall  be  established  in  a  convenient  posi- 
tion for  each  district,  or  combination  of  districts, 
for  the  meetings  of  the  committees,  for  receiving 
applications,  and  for  facility  of  reference. 

The  Committee  on  the  Care  and  Relief  of  the 
Dependent  may  appoint  sub-committees  to  deal  with 
homeless  persons,  and  such  other  sub-committees  as 
it  may,  from  time  to  time,  find  necessary. 

Whenever  any  particular  group  of  dependents 
shall  become  an  object  of  special  interest  and  • 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

inquiry,  or  shall  appear  to  demand  exceptional  treat- 
nt,  the  care  of  such  group  may  be  retained  by  the 
Committee  on-the  Care  and  Relief  of  the  Dependent 
without  reference  to  the  district  office. 

SECTION  6.  The  Committee  on  Fresh  Air  Work 
shall  have  charge  of  fthe  fresh  air  activities  of  the 
Society. 

SECTION  7.  The  Committee  on  Mendicancy  shall 
be  charged  with  the  duty  of  suppressing  mendi- 
cancy. Any  special  officers  appointed  for  this  pur- 
pose shall  report  to  this  committee  and  be  under  its 
direction. 

SECTION  8.  The  Committee  on  the  Prevention 
of  Tuberculosis  shall  be  charged  with  the  work  of 
securing  and  disseminating  information  on  means  of 
preventing  the  spread  of  tuberculosis,  and  of  any 
other  activities  undertaken  by  the  Society  within  the 
scope  indicated  by  the  title  of  the  Committee. 

SECTION  9.  The  Committee  on  Housing  Reform 
shall  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  improving  the 
condition  of  tenement  houses  by  securing  proper 
legislation,  by  securing  the  enforcement  of  the  exist- 
ing laws,  by  encouraging  the  building  of  improved 
tenements,  and  otherwise. 

'SECTION  10.  The  Committee  on  Provident 
Habits  shall  endeavor  to  promote  the  general  wel- 
fare of  the  poor  by  the  inculcation  of  habits  of  pru- 
dence and  thrift,  and  by  supplying  facilities  there- 
for. 

SECTION  n.  The  Committee  on  Statistics  shall 
be  charged  with  the  collection  and  treatment  of 


2OO  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

charitable  and  correctional  statistics  relating  to  the 
work  of  the  Society  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
Council. 

ARTICLE  VIII. 

SECTION  i.  The  fiscal  year  of  the  Society  shall 
begin  on  the  first  day  of  October  of  each  year,  but  all 
annual  subscriptions  shall  become  due  upon  the  first 
day  of  January  in  each  year. 

SECTION  2.  No  appeal  for  contributions  to  the 
funds  of  the  Society  shall  be  issued  without  the 
sanction  of  the  Finance  Committee ;  provided,  how- 
ever, that  the  Secretary  may  make,  from  time  to 
time,  in  the  daily  press  such  special  appeals  for 
contributions  as  exceptional  conditions  may  require. 

SECTION  3.  The  funds  of  the  Society  shall  be 
divided  into  three  parts  to  be  known  as : 

1.  The  Endowment  Fund. 

2.  The  Reserve  Fund. 

3.  The  General  Fund. 

SECTION  4.  The  Endowment  Fund:  The  En- 
dowment Fund  shall  consist  of  such  contributions 
and  legacies  as  shall  be  given  with  the  restriction 
that  the  income  only  shall  be  used  for  the  purposes 
of  the  Society. 

SECTION  5.  The  Reserve  Fund:  The  Reserve 
Fund  shall  consist  of  such  sums  as  may  be  set  aside 
from  the  General  Fund,  from  time  to  time,  by  the 
Council  for  investment.  Whenever  any  part  of  the 
Reserve  Fund  shall  be  appropriated  by  the  Council, 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  2OI 

such  sum  shall  be  immediately  transferred  to  the 
General  Fund. 

The  Endowment  and  Reserve  Funds  shall  be 
under  the  immediate  direction  and  control  of  the 
Finance  Committee,  and  all  investments  of  these 
funds  shall  be  ordered  by  the  committee. 

The  Treasurer  of  the  Society  shall  be  a  member 
of,  and  act  as  Treasurer  of,  the  Finance  Committee, 
and  shall  be  responsible  for  the  safe  keeping  of  the 
securities  of  the  Endowment  and  Reserve  Funds. 

Any  uninvested  balance  of  the  Endowment  and 
Reserve  Funds  shall  be  kept  each  in  separate  trust 
companies,  in  the  name  of  the  Society,  subject  to  the 
check  of  the  Treasurer,  and  shall,  whenever  possible, 
bear  interest. 

All  income  from  the  Endowment  and  Reserve 
Funds  shall  be  transferred  to  the  General  Fund  as 
soon  as  received. 

No  part  of  the  Reserve  Fund  shall  be  used  for 
any  purpose  except  by  resolution  of  the  Council, 
and,  whenever  any  part  shall  be  appropriated  by  the 
Council,  it  shall  be  immediately  transferred  to  the 
General  Fund. 

SECTION  6.  The  General  Fund:  The  term  Gen- 
eral Fund  shall  cover  all  receipts  of  the  Society  not 
constituting  a  Special  Fund  or  specified  for  the  En- 
dowment Fund ;  the  intention  being  that  all  income, 
including  legacies,  donations  for  general  purposes, 
and  income  from  Endowment,  Reserve  and  Special 
Funds,  shall  be  credited  to  the  General  Fund,  to 
which  the  authorized  disbursements  of  each  activity 


202  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

of  the  Society  shall  be  charged  at  the  close  of  the 
fiscal  year. 

SECTION  7.  Whenever  an  appeal  shall  be  author- 
ized for  a  particular  purpose  or  activity  of  the 
Society,  the  donations  received  in  response  to  such 
appeal  shall  be  credited  to  a  fund,  the  title  of  which 
shall  be  descriptive  of  the  work  done,  and  the  pro- 
portion of  the  donations  so  received  to  be  transferred 
to  the  General  Fund  as  a  proper  share  of  the  general 
administration  expense  of  the  Society  shall  be 
decided  by  the  Finance  Committee. 

All  Special  Funds,  unless  otherwise  specified  by 
the  donor,  shall  be  under  the  control  of  the  Finance 
Committee,  in  like  manner  to  the  Endowment  and 
Reserve  Funds,  and  the  securities  or  money  making 
such  fund  shall  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Treas- 
urer of  the  Finance  Committe^Vho  shall  be  respon- 
sible for  the  safe  keeping  of  the  same;  all  income 
from  any  such  funds  shall  be  transferred  to  the 
General  Fund  on  its  receipt  by  the  Treasurer,  to 
be  used  in  accordance  wijji  the  terms  of  the  several 
trusts. 

SECTION  8.  The  Treasurer  shall  notify  the  Sec- 
retary at  once  of  all  transfers  of  income  from  the 
Endowment  and  Reserve  Funds  or  from  any  Special 
Fund  to  the  General  Fund. 

The  Treasurer  shall  notify  the  Secretary  imme- 
diately on  the  receipt  by  him  of  any  sum  for  the 
account  of  the  Society,  that  such  receipt  may  be 
entered  at  once  to  the  credit  of  the  proper  account 
on  the  books  of  the  Society. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY  2O3 

SECTION  9.  The  Secretary  shall  be  the  only  dis- 
bursing agent  of  the  Society,  the  object  of  this  pro- 
vision being  to  keep  in  the  Central  Offices  of  the 
Society  all  receipts  for  payments  by  the  Society  of 
any  kind,  nature,  description,  and  to  have  in  the 
Central  Offices  immediate  record  of  any  disburse- 
ment. This  provision  shall  not  necessarily  apply  to 
the  investment  of  the  Endowment  and  Reserve 
Funds,  nor  of  any  Special  Fund. 

SECTION  10.  All  donations  shall  be  received  by 
the  Treasurer,  or  by  the  Secretary  as  his  representa- 
tive, entered  upon  the  proper  books  of  the  Society, 
and  then  deposited  in  such  trust  company  as  is 
directed  by  the  Treasurer. 

SECTION  n.  Whenever  the  Council  shall  make 
an  appropriation  out  of  either  the  Reserve  or  Gen- 
eral Fund,  the  Secretary  shall  send  to  the  Treasurer 
a  copy  of  the  resolution  making  the  appropriation, 
certified  by  the  Secretary,  which  certified  copy  shall 
be  the  Treasurer's  authority  for  transferring  the 
appropriated  amount  to  the  Secretary. 

SECTION  12.  The  Treasurer  shall  keep  an  ac- 
count in  the  name  of  the  Society,  subject  to  his 
check  as  Treasurer,  in  such  trust  company  as  may 
be  selected  by  him  and  approved  by  the  Finance 
Committee,  and  such  account  shall  draw  interest 
whenever  possible.  Such  account  shall  be  separate 
and  distinct  from  those  accounts  opened  for  the 
uninvested  balances  of  the  Endowment,  Reserve  or 
Special  Funds. 

The  Secretary  shall  keep  a  bank  account  in  the 


204  THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

name  of  the  Society,  subject  to  his  check  as  Secre- 
tary, for  current  disbursements. 

SECTION  13.  No  resolution  appropriating  money 
for  any  purpose  other  than  the  ordinary  expenses  of 
the  Society,  as  provided  for  by  the  regular  appropri- 
ations, shall  be  acted  upon  at  the  meeting  at  which 
it  is  introduced,  except  when  such  resolution  mak- 
ing an  appropriation  shall  be  recommended  to  the 
Council  by  the  Finance  Committee. 

SECTION  14.  The  Finance  Committee  may  em- 
ploy an  expert  accountant  to  audit  the  accounts  at 
such  times  as  may  be  deemed  necessary. 

SECTION  15.  At  each  regular  meeting  of  the 
Council  the  Treasurer  shall  make  a  detailed  state- 
ment of  the  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  pre- 
ceding calendar  month ;  he  shall  make  a  statement 
showing  the  investments  and  the  receipts  and  dis- 
bursements of  the  Endowment,  Reserve  and  Special 
Funds.  He  shall  make,  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
Society,  a  detailed  statement  of  the  receipts  and  dis- 
bursements for  the  fiscal  year. 


ARTICLE  IX. 

AMENDMENTS. 

This  Constitution  shall  not  be  amended  except  by 
either  (i)  the  resolution  of  a  two-thirds  vote  of  a 
meeting  of  the  Council,  at  which  at  least  seven 
elective  members  shall  be  present,  notice  of  such 
amendment  having  been  already  given  at  a  previous 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  CHARITY 

stated  meeting  of  the  Council,  and  a  copy  thereof 
sent  to  each  member  of  the  Council  at  least  five 
days  previous  to  the  meeting  at  which  it  is  to  be  con- 
sidered; or  (2)  the  unanimous  vote  of  such  a  meet- 
ing without  notice  having  been  given  at  a  previous 
stated  meeting,  but  after  the  five  days'  notice  to  each 
member  of  the  Council  hereinbefore  provided. 


Index 


Addams,  Miss  Jane,  82. 

Adequate  relief,  50. 

Aged,  The  destitute,  19, 
144. 

American  Academy  of  Po- 
litical and  Social  Science, 
108. 

American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Sci- 
ence, 108. 

Anson,  James  and  Mary 
(111.  Problem),  150. 

Applied  Philanthropy  as  a 
Vocation,  105. 

Associations  for  Improving 
the  Condition  of  the  Poor, 
42,  59- 

Ayres,  Philip  W.,  117. 

Baltimore  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society,  63. 

Bannard,  Otto  T.,  117. 

Begging,  Treatment  of,  123. 

Benefit  societies  and  funds, 
35- 

Beneficiaries  of  charity : 
effect  on  character,  164. 

Bibliography,  ix. 

Boston  Associated  Charities, 
63- 

Brackett,  Jeffrey  R.,  117. 

Brown,  Herbert  S.,  109. 


Brown,  Miss  Mary  Willcox, 

35- 

Buffalo,      Church      district 
plan,  97. 

Burgess,  Miss  M.  H.,  39. 

Catholic  Charities  Associa- 
tion, 100. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  33,  86. 

Charities     (weekly    periodi- 
cal), 109. 

Charities  Review,   The,   53, 
58,  98,  109,  121. 

Charity  defined,  16,  17,  141. 

Charity  Organization  Soci- 
•  eties,  Origin  of,  44;  essen- 
tial features  of,  45,  and 
material  relief,  54,  63 ; 
reasons  for  hostility  to, 
55  ;  chief  aim  of,  58 ;  divis- 
ion of  work  with  other 
agencies,  59 ;  draft  of  con- 
stitution for,  192. 

Childhood     and     Maturity, 
157- 

Children,  Destitute,  24. 

Child  -  saving,       Competing 
methods,  27. 

Church,   The,   and   Charity, 
47,  84. 

Citizen,  and  Social  Debtor, 
158. 


207 


208 


INDEX 


Conferences,  108. 
Constitution    of    a    Charity 
Organization  Society,  Ap- 
pendix I,  164. 

Consumption  of  wealth,  77. 
Contributions     to     Charity, 

162. 

Co-operate,  to,  143,  150. 
Co-operation,  46-78. 
Courtesy  and  charity,   16. 
Cox,  Charles  R,  117. 
Day  Nurseries,  38. 
de  Forest,  Robert  W.,  117. 
Deserted  families,  29,  133. 
Dewey,  Mrs.  Mary  H.,  38. 
District  Committees  in  char- 
ity organization,  60,  75- 
Docks,  William  (111.  Prob- 
lem), 146. 

Elementary  Definitions,  140^ 
Elementary   Principles,    121. 
Eliminate,  to,  143,  146. 
Employment  agencies,  37. 
Evans,  Mrs.  Glendower,  117- 
EVENING  POST,  152. 
Farm  colonies,  30. 
Feel,  to,  141. 

Field  of  Charity,  The,  30. 
Finley,  John  H.,  109. 
Folks,  Homer,  117. 
Foundlings,  25. 
Fraternal  associations,  35. 
Friendly  Visiting,  48,  58,  62, 
7i,  73,  96,   130,   131,   132, 
133- 

Friendship,  Social  Value  of, 
7i,  78. 


Frothingham,  Edward,  58. 
Give,  to,  141,  142. 
Gould,  E.  R.  L.,  117. 
Hale,   Edward   Everett,  86, 

99- 

Hallock,  S.  F.,  117. 
Handbook   on   the    Preven- 
tion of  Tuberculosis,  152. 
Health  and  Sickness,  155. 
Help,  to,  141,  142. 
Henderson,  Charles  R.,  33. 
Holstein,  Mrs.  Victoria  M. 

(111.  Problem),  161. 
Home,  The,  70. 
Homeless  persons,   29,   123. 
Hospital  care,  21. 
Howell,     James     K.      (111. 

Problem),  156. 
Illustrative  Problems,  140. 
Individual  charity,  32. 
Institutional  care,  145. 
Investigation  as  a  feature  of 

charity  organization,  45. 
Justice  and  charity,  5. 
Kellogg,  Charles  D.,  44. 
Kindergarten,  The,  40. 
Lindsay,  Samuel  M.,  117. 
Lodge,  Edwin  Harvey   (111 

Problem),   160. 
London    Charity   Organiza- 
tion Society,  63. 
Lowell,   Mrs.   Charles  Rus- 
sell, 61,  117. 
Maturity     and     Childhood, 

157- 

Medical  charity,  The  abuse 
of,  24. 


INDEX 


209 


Morse,    Miss    Frances    R., 

114. 
Motives  of  charitable  gifts, 

9- 

Mulry,  Thomas  M.,  101. 

National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction, 
The,  108. 

Natural  Selection  and  Char- 
ity, 12. 

Need,  to,  141. 

Need  for  Charity,  Universal, 

15- 

Neighborly  help,  20,  32. 

Newport  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Society,  41. 

New  York  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society,  63,  64,  109, 
117. 

Nineteenth  Century,  Ameri- 
can Philanthropy  in,  109. 
jjects  of  charity,  18. 

Organize,  to,  143,  150,  152. 

Organized  Charity:  Various 
types  of,  43 ;  defined,  53. 

Orphan  and  neglected  chil- 
dren, 24,  136. 

Outlook  of  charity  workers, 
118. 

Owen,  Mary  (111.  Problem), 
145- 

Palliative,  Is  charity  merely 
a,  8,  10. 

Peabody,  F.  G.,  81. 

Penny  Provident  Fund, 
42. 

Physical  disability,  155. 


Plan,   The  working  out  of 

a,  49. 

Prevent,  to,  143,  145. 
Principles,  Elementary,  121. 
Prison  Congress,  The,   108. 
Problems,  Illustrative,  140. 
Professional      services      of 

physicians,  etc.,  34. 
Professional  workers  in  the 

field  of  charity,  76,    104; 

qualifications  of,   107. 
Public   School,   analogy  of, 

to  charity,  89. 
Public  Out-Door  Relief,  129, 

132. 

Reconstruct,  to,  143,  147. 
Record,      The       Quarterly, 

109. 

Reform,  149. 
Regeneration,  148. 
Registration,  Central,  49. 
Relief,  material,  and  charity 

organization  societies,  54, 

152,  155,  167. 
Relief  Societies,  42. 
Relieve,  to,  143,  147. 
Religion,  Value  of,  92. 
Richmond,    Miss    Mary   E., 

58,  98,  99,  1 10. 
Roberts,  Robert  (111.  Prob- 
lem), 149. 
Saunders,      Thomas      (See 

Problem),  140. 
Savings,       Promotion       of 

small,  41. 

School   of  Applied    Philan- 
thropy,    need     for,     no; 


2IO 


INDEX 


Miss  Morse's  plan  for  a 
co-operative,  114;  The 
New  York  Summer 
School,  116. 

Shaw,  Mrs.  Quincy  A.,  40. 

Shelters  for  homeless,  29. 

Shiftlessness,  Treatment  of, 

133. 
Sick,     The     destitute,      18, 

132. 

Sickness,  Health  and,  155. 
Siebel,    Emma     (111.    Prob- 
lem), 141. 
Single  Women,  135. 
Smith,      Miss    Zilpha,     D., 

117. 

Social  debtor,  158. 
Social   Science  Association, 

108. 

Social  utility  of  charity,  n. 
Standard  of  living,  The,  68, 

76. 
Starling,  George  and  Mary 

(111.  Problem),  153. 
Stein,   Rudolph  and  Louisa 

(111.  Problem),  144. 
Stewart,  Wm.  R.,  117. 
Suffer,  to,  141. 


Temporary  relief,  special 
dangers  of,  137. 

Test  of  a  Good  Society,  161. 

Thompson,  Mrs.  Edwar4 
(111.  Problem),  147. 

Toby  (111.  Problem),  151. 

Training,  professional,  107. 

Trumbull,  Henry  Clay,  72. 

Tucker,  Frank,  53. 

Unemployment,   124. 

University  courses  in  Sociol- 
ogy, 1 08. 

Vagrants,  Treatment  of,  123. 

Volunteer  service,  65. 

Wage-earning  capacity,  155. 

Widows,  with  children,  27, 
125- 

Widowers,  Destitute  with 
children,  135. 

Wilson,  Robert  and  Mary 
(111.  Problem),  143. 

Wines,  Frederick  H.,  109. 

Woman's  work  in  promot- 
ing social  well-being,  69.' 

Workers  in  charity:  effect 
on  character,  163. 

Workingman :  attitude  to- 
ward charity,  6. 


14  DAY  USE 

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